YOU may remember when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was happy to take on the mantle of the "education" governor. His actions to enact a simplistic and foolhardy across the board 10 percent cut in every part of the state budget comes down to short changing the schools at a time we need to see them significantly improved.

Milpitas will take a hit somewhere between $3.5 and $4.5 million in its coming annual budget and is likely to see a similar cut the following years. The result will be to totally wipe out its 3 percent reserve fund, in addition to dipping into retirement benefit set-asides and slice into staff and programs to make up the shortfall. In California's arcane world of education budgeting (the final money allocations won't be known most likely until late summer), the school district can only make educated guesses as to what will happen.

It is pretty certain, however, that the situation for this year (2008-09) can be coped with but the 2009-10 fiscal year could well be a disaster.

California's education spending is ranked 46th out of the 50 states. But the most recent efforts to tap into the windfall profits of oil companies to close the gap, went down in flames due to the two-thirds requirement for any legislative tax proposal. No one likes taxes. Remember, of course, Milpitas voters (and some of our city's leaders) balked at passing a needed parcel tax to help out the district. We do, however, know that good schools benefit everyone both through

improved real estate values and a better equipped future generation.

We assume there would be widespread agreement that spending money on education is a lot better than spending it on prisons, for example. But the politicians seem to pay a lot more heed to the prison lobby than to the advocates for our children.

When voters enacted Proposition 98 several years ago, it appeared that funding for education would always be a first priority. The governor seems all too willing to use his power to suspend the effect of Proposition 98 rather than to analyze and prioritize the various elements of the state budget. This may require some hard choices and might make some influential groups mad. The school children who are injured by more crowded classrooms and weakened school systems can't be told to hold on for a few years, when the economy turns around. What they lose cannot be regained.

It's time for parents and the community at large to be seriously engaged in preserving what has been the excellence of our local schools.