SEATTLE (AP) - As more than a third of the class of 2008 gets closer to not graduating from high school for flunking the math section of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, politicians must decide whether to delay the requirement or face angry mobs of parents.

"It's completely untenable to say to half the parents in the state that little Johnny is not going to graduate," said Chris Vance, former state Republican chairman. "It's just not politically possible."

Gov. Chris Gregoire, who is expected to run for re-election around the same time the class of 2008 is supposed to graduate, announced this past week that she would encourage the Legislature to delay the math requirement for three more years.

Gregoire said she's concerned not about the votes of angry parents but about kids who might wonder whether it's worth staying in school after failing the test twice.

"We've got students who are frankly demoralized," Gregoire told The Associated Press. "The last thing we need is 49 percent of our 10th graders thinking it's useless to go on and dropping out of school."

The governor, the superintendent of public instruction and the state Board of Education all propose delaying the math WASL as a graduation requirement until 2011, while requiring students to keep taking math classes and trying to pass the test.

Twenty-two states require students to pass a test to graduate high school and three others are phasing in such tests by 2012. About two-thirds of the nation's 15 million public high school students must pass such an exam to graduate.

The tests have prompted legal challenges and protests as big percentages of students failed.

California denied diplomas to 40,000 students in the class of 2006 because they didn't pass.

Critics of graduation tests note that higher numbers of poor, minority and disabled students tend to fail the tests.

The Washington test was developed to monitor how well the state's 1 million public school students are achieving rigorous standards in reading, math and writing. As it now stands, beginning with the Class of 2008, students have to pass all three sections to graduate. Future classes will also have to pass a science test.

More than half the students in the Class of 2008 have passed the math section. But 32,000 still haven't passed and risk not graduating next year. Most have passed the reading and writing sections of the test.

Vance, who was in the Legislature when the original WASL bill passed in 1993, seemed more sad about another delay than willing to accuse Gregoire of playing politics with the education of Washington's youth.

"They were about to run against a political firestorm and they know it," Vance said.

Washington State University political scientist Lance LeLoup figures the timing of the governor's proposal is more coincidence than politics.

"Even if she were finishing up her political career, the specter of denying half the students a high school diploma really goes beyond politics," LeLoup said.

Charles Hasse, president of the Washington Education Association, said the governor was just being realistic.

"It doesn't make sense to be telling over half of the 10th graders that they're not likely to be able to graduate," said Hasse. "The governor is simply saying ... something is wrong here and we cannot blame students for what is a problem in the system somewhere.

The state teacher's union has been critical of the WASL all along, arguing that the problem lies in the test, not with students or teachers.

Hasse said his union's members take issue with anyone blames teachers for their students' failure to pass the math WASL, including Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson.

"I think that the state superintendent in particular is making teachers take the fall on this and using that as political cover for the mistakes that they've made in that agency in pursuing poor testing policy all along," Hasse said.

But at least one supporter of the WASL argues the governor and any legislators who follow her lead could be making a political mistake.

"The politics of backtracking are riskier than the politics of staying the course," said Steve Mullin, president of the Washington Roundtable, a business group that has been staunch in its support for the WASL and the high standards it was expected to measure.

Mullin said his organization's research indicates Washington citizens are strongly in favor of higher standards and meeting the challenge of the WASL, not backing down.

Vance said another delay in the WASL is a personal disappointment for him. "I remember standing on the floor of the House and being so excited and proud when we passed this bill," he said.

The WASL was designed to help fundamentally change education in Washington state, but for many reasons, including too little money for school reform, the test has become more of a political hot button than an icon for educational excellence.

Mullin said he understood how difficult it would be for politicians to stay the course when it looks like so many students are going to graduate.

Meanwhile, he said, demand will increase for workers who can do higher level math and compete in the business world.

"My firm hope is we don't put our heads in the sand and pretend those things aren't happening while we try to fix this problem," he said.