OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - The chairwoman of the state Senate education committee wants high school seniors and juniors to know she is paying close attention to their struggles with the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe on Wednesday promised a hearing room full of teachers, students, parents and education group representatives that her committee would find a way to quickly resolve some obstacles for students.

However, she warned that budget cuts are coming and some proposals would make it harder for students to meet state graduation requirements.

Among Gov. Chris Gregoire's proposals for dealing with an expected $6 billion shortfall in the next biennium is to cut extra money schools get to shrink class sizes and provide extended learning opportunities for struggling students.

McAuliffe, D-Bothell, said it wouldn't be fair to ask students to work hard to overcome obstacles and graduate from high school, then take away support from the state to help reach that goal.

School officials who testified at the hearing before the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee said if the money from Initiative 728 is taken away, they would lose counselors who focus on graduation, teachers who help students meet alternative graduation requirements and special WASL math classes and summer preparation sessions.

The initiative, approved by voters in 2000, provides state money to reduce class sizes.

Cathy deJong of Auburn spoke of the difficulties her daughter, who she described as a gifted artist but a poor test taker, has had with the WASL. She asked the committee to eliminate the test as a graduation requirement.

"For seven years, the punitive nature of the WASL has been an unwelcome visitor in the deJong family," she said. Each fall since the 4th grade, after her daughter found out she did not pass the WASL, her family had to convince her she was not a failure and that she should not give up on school, deJong said.

The WASL is one of four state high school graduation requirements. Students must also earn the required number of credits in each subject area, complete a special project and write a plan for what they will do after graduation.

The class of 2008 was the first required to pass the writing and reading sections of the WASL to graduate. The Legislature has delayed the math and science tests as graduation requirements until 2013.

Scott Brittain, principal of John Rogers High School in Puyallup, said the requirements, which have been revised several times by lawmakers, have confused students, parents and school officials.

"We really do struggle on a daily basis" to understand the rules and communicate them to students and their families, Brittain said.

Rogers' graduation specialist, Kimberlee Armstrong, said 107 seniors at the high school have the credits to graduate but still have to pass the WASL. She's watching another 200 juniors carefully to make sure they meet their WASL requirements.

Both the Senate and House education committees focused on WASL proposals Wednesday. Bills before the committees would make a number of test revisions based on recommendations of a group of lawmakers who met over the summer, with one measure eliminating the WASL entirely.

New Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn has said he would like to see a new exam replace the WASL, but both he and Gregoire have said they want students to pass a standardized test to graduate.

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The measures are SB5414, SB5498, SB5260 and SB5459.