From the promising to the discouragingly persistent, so many important issues are facing San Francisco public schools right now. Between the vision of new programs such as ethnic studies at the high school level and expanded language immersion, to reducing truancy and tackling school safety and even the almost complete new student assignment policy, there is so much for us to be discussing, debating, working out and putting into practice.

But as important as all of these issues are, each one of them is trumped by the budget crisis, which has grown from a perpetual disaster mostly held at bay to a looming tidal wave with time running out to contain its destructive force.

In mid January, Board of Education (BOE) members and the general public were brought up to speed by San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) staff about the specific forecast for San Francisco’s schools—a likely $113 million dollar shortfall. Given the belt-tightening that has been going on for decades since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the options for closing this gap are painful—eliminating or reducing summer school for students who have fallen behind; eliminating or reducing transportation; and increasing class sizes substantially are just some of the options.

The SFUSD announcement was preceded by Governor Schwarzenegger’s proclamation that though the state’s budget outlook continues to be grim, this time around he would spare education. Given the Governor’s track record, the skeptics among us find that unlikely. And indeed, SFUSD staff have already detailed for us why the Governor’s promise is an empty one, as cuts will already be coming due to: an expected negative Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA); incomplete funding of the revenue limit (the baseline amount that all schools are supposed to receive); and a vaguely defined gubernatorial directive to reduce administrative costs.

So in other words, the education budget is in peril again and it’s time to jump into action to protect our children and their schools. Luckily, several gears are in motion. For instance, Superintendent Carlos Garcia has reissued his call for a multi-district lawsuit against the state government. Such an action has been long-overdue, for both financial and political reasons. A lawsuit could provide a powerful platform from which to not only get more funding but to highlight the true resource-starved condition of public education in an authority-imbued setting and to recalibrate our public priorities.

More grass-roots actions are going to be discussed at the Funding Our Future February 25th town hall meeting at Marina Middle School (3500 Fillmore St. at Chestnut St.). This event will be an opportunity to not only get the most accurate information about the state of the budget, but will provide a chance to strategize with supportive elected officials and public education activists about how to not defend what we have and how to change the entire nature of the battle.

The following week will be the statewide March 4th Day of Action to support K through college level education throughout California. In San Francisco, public education supporters will be gathering at 3pm at 24th and Mission Streets and will converge at 4:30pm at the State Building for a rally with the teachers’ union (UESF) and then will march to Civic Center for a more massive rally at 5pm.

As both the Town Hall and the Day of Action indicate, tackling the current budget crises, while critical, can’t be our ultimate goal. The budget, as bad as it is, is only a symptom, not the source of our problems. The root cause that we need to get at is our state’s absolutely broken system of revenue generation and budget allocations, a problem much larger than education funding, but one that overshadows so many of the other factors that shape our schools.

When funding crises come up, Proposition 13 typically becomes first on the agenda of things to change. Overhauling this disastrous piece of code by closing corporate loopholes is certainly essential for the viability of basic services such as public education, transportation, etc., but would not be sufficient by itself.

What is absolutely critical is the overturning of the two-thirds super majority required to pass budgets and revenue proposals. Without this change in our governing practice we will be forever stuck in financial stalemates that paralyze our legislators and cost a tremendous amount as the budget cycle gets drawn out months past the fiscal deadlines.

A few proposals for addressing the super majority problem have been floated about for awhile, but a new and very promising approach has just recently surfaced. The California Democracy Act (CDA), authored by UC Berkeley Linguistics professor George Lakoff and supported by a wide variety of elected officials, organizations and academics, states: “All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.”

In other words, no more supermajority, in which two-thirds of the legislature must agree in order to pass any budget or revenue issues. No more being held hostage by the one-third minority, mostly Republicans who have taken a no-tax pledge, including refusing to eliminate loopholes for corporations and wealthy individuals, thereby pushing off the burden of providing essential social services to the rest of us. The CDA presents a very real opportunity to change this situation and all it needs now are 1 million signatures by early April in order to qualify for the November ballot. We can all print out petitions, collect signatures, and turn them in.

Tackling the super majority logjam in Sacramento may seem many steps removed from the budget struggles public education advocates are most focused on in classrooms and school buildings, but this is a core education issue nonetheless. Without a dramatic change in this structural underpinning, education budgets will always be too vulnerable for comfort. If a lawsuit is possible, public education supporters should do everything we can to see it through. We should come out in numbers on March 4th. We should lobby our elected officials and partner with them to get the most we can right now, but we would be naïve to think that any of these strategies could be the final solution.

Lisa Schiff is the parent of two children in the San Francisco Unified School District and is a member of Parents for Public Schools of San Francisco and the PTA and is a board member at the national level of Parents for Public Schools.