Bey-Ling Sha is president of the Language Academy Parent Teacher Student Association. She is in Sacramento lobbying lawmakers on education and sharing her thoughts on what she's learned. The views expressed here are her own, not those of her school or parent group. You can contact her at beyling_sha@yahoo.com or just post a comment on the blog.
Anyone who parents or works with children knows that kids like to play games. Duck-duck-goose, hide-and-seek, ring-around-the-rosy -- all are cherished traditions from our childhood playgrounds. I'm in Sacramento with other parent leaders to lobby lawmakers about education funding, and I'm learning that, apparently, adults like to play games, too.
Of course, the playground of politicians and lobbyists is a far more complicated and treacherous place than your average children's park. Yet some things are eerily similar - the neighborhood bully who throws his weight around, intimidating the other players; the whiner who cries to everyone at home that she didn't participate in making the mess; and the smooth-talker who manages to come out looking like the golden child to the "grown-ups" (read: voters) even though all the other players know that he is the one who instigates many of the problems.
The biggest losers in the games being played in Sacramento are the children of California.
From 1929 to 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, per pupil funding in our state was reduced 25 percent. In comparison, in the 2008-2010 budget cycles, per pupil funding has already declined 18 percent. For San Diego schools, the $17.6 billion cut to education in the last two years amounts to a loss of $2,100 per