Embedded (deep) in the school-budget trench

Which brings me to another controversial - and costly - subject: discipline.

Critics of public schools often complain that bad behavior goes unpunished. Let me point out that our entire nation has become an "in your face" culture, and any time a dispute pops up there's a good chance someone will call a lawyer. (Is your mental calculator keeping tally here?) My district has compiled two documents: "Student Responsibilities and Rights" and "Consistent Discipline Handbook." I call them the Code of Hammurabi for Teens. The list of transgressions is extensive, each carries a specific punishment, and every disciplinary action must be thoroughly documented so that nobody can claim unequal treatment.

This kind of hidden bureaucracy doesn't get news coverage. And it makes me testy when critics ignorant of burdensome details like these talk about the need to improve "the educational product." Education is a process, not a product, and a lot of it - such as maintaining the rules - can't be quantified, but it can cost you.

So when it comes to deciding how much money schools need, all I can say for sure is that we don't have enough right now. Fortunately, the outlook for next year isn't disastrous in my district, thanks to a special property tax levy that voters in Beaverton approved recently. (Portland voters approved a local income tax to bolster their schools.) Our measure will raise $17 million per year - I'll be contributing about $150 of that - for the next three years. If the levy had failed, downsizing would have been draconian. There isn't enough room here to list all the cuts that were planned, but more than 200 teachers were on the chopping block.

Even with the new levy, my daughter's school will lose some key positions. The office next fall will have only three secretaries instead of four. So the office won't shut down, but some critics will surely claim that its failure to close proves the fourth secretary wasn't needed in the first place. A lot of these arguments make me feel like I'm back on the playground: "Does not! Does TOO! You lie! No, YOU lie!"

But I'm not bailing out. School advocates continue to press for more state funding, and a positive effect of this ordeal is that grass-roots support for public schools has been energized. What nobody can predict is how lawmakers will divide up the meager budget pie. Will they come up with a sensible long-term solution or some kind of desperate quick fix? Regardless, I'll stick with my own lesson plan, helping my daughter get her assignments done on time and explaining to her why public education is important. It's not just test scores. It's how the next generation finds common ground with each other and develops the cultural connections that hold America together.

In spite of criticisms aimed at public schools, thousands of talented kids are emerging from the system each year and they'll do great things someday. I'm hoping one of them will come up with an absolutely flawless, totally noncontroversial way to resolve the school-funding controversy once and for all.

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