Who Speaks for Our Children's Education

By Katherine Nakamura

An unpublished essay to my then-new colleagues on the Board about what budget cuts are like sitting up on the dais and where our priorities must always be found.

But there are other voices we will not hear, at least not at the same frequency, volume or intensity.

Education is a slow process. It is essentially delayed gratification for our community's investment, so we won't hear these voices.

During these budget cuts no seven year old will come before us to say that 12 years from now she will be pregnant and working in the fumes of a nail salon because we didn't provide a speech pathologist and she didn't speak well enough to pass the interview for a better job.

As we trim the "fat," no eight year old is going to tell us that he was going to study botany at Berkeley, but sixth grade camp was cut and he never saw a pine forest, so now he drives a trash truck.

As we reduce expenditures no ten year old will testify in tears that she was going to write a movie blockbuster's theme song, but we didn't repair the musical instruments at her school, so now she just listens to her iPod at work as she types the letter her boss has composed.

As we put our employees first, no 11 year old is going to tell you that he was going to be a neurosurgeon, but the level of instruction was so narrow and low that he dropped out of school, went back, dropped out, went back, and is now laying electrical wiring.

As we are fiscally responsible no 12 year old will effectively and eloquently say that he has a vision for his community, but we couldn't fund Junior Model United Nations so now he stands in the audience without words, only anger.

These are choices that we make, but no one really holds us accountable for those losses. Not really.

After all, you can't prove a negative.

Not every child is destined for greatness, but are we going to protect those classes that make education promising? Those programs that give our children hope? The broad curriculum that makes a child's education inspiring, challenging and exciting, even beyond any vision they may have of themselves?

Our oath of office states that we must serve, protect and defend the laws and constitution of the State of California. Our newest members may have noticed as they took this oath that nowhere does it mention our children's education. It is the same oath that is taken by every elected official with no distinction drawn for the special obligations that we hold as members of the Board of Education. The curriculum, purpose and long-term goal of our children's education are questions we will have to ask ourselves about on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

Ultimately balancing the education budget is about what will ultimately be the warp and weave of our society.

But not for a very long time.