The first week of the 2012 legislature draws to a close this cool Friday the 13th of January. Encouragingly, education reform has found substantial bipartisan support. In the Seattle Times, Brian Rosenthal has a good overview of yesterday’s action.

Declaring that traditional methods have failed, a bipartisan group of lawmakers formally introduced a pair of bills Thursday that could shake up education policy in the state — if they survive what is sure to be a contentious debate.

The proposals would allow charter schools into the state, establish a process for failing schools to be taken over by outside organizations and continue an overhaul of the way all teachers and principals are evaluated.

Where Rosenthal sees “contentious debate,” Erik Smith at Washington State Wire sees a new war in education. The legislators proposing the measures have substantial support from groups that have been long-time leaders in education reform.

Standing with them are the Washington Roundtable, the association that represents the state’s largest businesses; Washington Stand for Children, a grass-roots organization that urges education reform and funding, the League of Education Voters and the Partnership for Learning, among others.

On the other side, the Washington Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, announced its ongoing opposition to charter schools. Read Smith’s story for more details.

In the Senate, the bills have been introduced as SB 6202 (charter schools) and SB 6203 (teacher and principal evaluation systems).

For how the evaluation measures differ from the governor’s proposal, here’s Jordan Schrader’s account in The News Tribune.

Sen. Rodney Tom, one of the sponsors of the reform measures, has an informative video discussion of reforms and the budget.

In my column on last weeks state Supreme Court ruling that the state was not meeting its paramount duty of making “ample provision for the education” of Washington children I wrote:

Increased funding cannot be easily separated from increased accountability and reform.

There’s a lot of session left to go, but it’s encouraging to see education reform high on the legislative agenda, with solid bipartisan support.