Education reform has become the third rail of West Virginia politics. Much as members of Congress learned that attempting to reform Social Security could be hazardous to their political lives, Mountain State lawmakers have found education to be a hornets’ nest. Touch it and you’ll be stung.

State Senate Bill 451 tells the tale. As introduced in the Senate, it certainly had some controversial facets. But before passing it, senators removed some bad ideas. Among them were giving local school boards more taxing authority and increasing the number of pupils allowed in individual classrooms.

Members of the House of Delegates Education Committee have watered the bill down even more. The Senate’s major charter schools initiative has been all but eliminated. The House bill permits just two charter schools and then only on a trial basis. Other Senate provisions disliked intensely by school personnel unions also have been removed.

Enough compromises were made in the House — and the need for dramatic action has become so apparent — that more than one-third of Democrat delegates voted in favor of the bill. The final tally in passing the measure was 71-29, with 14 Democrats and 57 Republicans supporting it.

Lawmakers’ reward for compromising, yet still hoping to do something important to improve public schools? More and more condemnation.

Just this week, members of the Marshall County Board of Education approved a resolution opposing SB 451. Three school employee unions have threatened to strike over the measure.

Perhaps most laughable, some state-level school officials oppose the bill. We’re working on reform, the state education establishment pledges. Just give us more time.

How long have we heard those promises?

And, of course, there is the threat that the next time lawmakers who support SB 451 come up for reelection, the school employee unions may throw them out of office. It happened in a few legislative elections just last fall.

So the message is clear: Touch education reform in West Virginia, and find out how it feels to touch that electrified third rail on a subway line.

Clearly, the politically smart thing to do is to walk away from the issue. Just don’t worry about public school achievement in general being a disgrace by the state Department of Education’s own standards.

Yes, not rocking the boat would be the politically prudent course.

But would it be right?