An independent, experienced, professional analysis can press any enterprise toward higher performance standards, as well as boost its standing among its clientele. That is essentially the function that accreditation performs in the educational setting — the clientele being the families that entrust their children to the schools.

So clearly the move to get all public elementary schools accredited is a positive sign. It’s an indication that officials are determined to burnish the credentials of a public education, even during difficult budgetary times.

The state Department of Education and the Board of Education deserve applause for advancing such an initiative. The ambitious plan, which the board approved on Tuesday, would mandate that by 2019, all public elementary schools in the state be accredited by the Western Association for Schools and Colleges.

Since 1975, the BOE has required accreditation for secondary schools, 96 in all, including 13 elementary schools that have voluntarily undergone accreditation as well.

Still, the task of accrediting 159 additional schools over a five-year period is a daunting one.

One underpinning challenge for the DOE is a fiscal one. At the same board meeting, agency officials told the board that they are anticipating federal budget cuts. These could come as early as January, with the most painful hits due in the 2013-14 school year.

This surely means some difficult choices lie ahead.

The department needs to give its books a steely-eyed review and find room in the annual budget for the half-million-dollar bump it needs to carry out this important accreditation initiative.

WASC, one of six regional accrediting agencies in the U.S., serves Hawaii, California and schools across the Pacific. All of them are engaged in a debate over changing accreditation strategies.

The one WASC has adopted seems reasonable and creates opportunities for periodic review and incremental improvement.

Most schools meeting student-centered educational criteria will get a six-year accreditation status, with the possibility of intermediary site visits for formal review.

The data analysis and self-study responsibilities that accreditation puts on schools should not distract from ongoing learning, of course.

The need for staff support helps to explain the additional funding requested for the process.

But it’s more than paperwork, according to WASC experts explaining the process via a video posted online (www.ascwasc.org).

Among those speaking on camera is Nancy Soderberg, principal at Konawaena Middle School; she said accreditation "helps to forge a relationship between the school and school community," sustaining the school in its improvement.

"I think WASC provides that opportunity in allowing us to engage the community by having them involved in focus groups, in looking at the data that we have, looking at the action plans that we’ve come up," she said. "And they’re joining with us in saying, ‘Yes, this is the way the school needs to go.’"

This seems like a worthwhile investment in school reform and development. State school officials and the lawmakers who have a hand in their budget should give the accreditation expansion priority and find other ways to make operations pencil out on the bottom line.