Mandating school funding increases, in the absence of any discussion about what else needs to happen, or how we got the schools into their current dilemma (or the fact that all other services are right there with them) is like coming up for one more gasping breath while the water level continues to rise. Or offering the frog in the pot of water a mai tai to sip in his hot tub - it might make him more comfy, but he'll succomb to the heat that much faster.

Tortured similes aside, I don't have a solution to offer. I'm worried and daunted by the scale of the problems facing my state (and everyone else's). What I know is that, while I certainly value the public school system, I don't like setting them up in "I've got mine" opposition to the rest of civil society. The schools' troubles need to be understood as part of a wider problem if we're going to come up with a real solution.

(And, I've been blogged by D&S? *swoon*.)