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# Thank you, with a capital ‘S’
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/thank-you-with-a-capital-s-editor/
- Published: 2003-11-14T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:14:32.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Malibu, #archive-import

*By Rebecca Kennerly Santa Monica*

Two months ago, on Sept. 4, my children and I felt the normal excitement and trepidation of the first day of school. We were grateful for this trepidation because it meant we, and thousands of other families in our community, were spared the horrifying anxiety of entering a school whose funding had been slashed, programs eliminated and teachers fired. Community residents and City Council members who voted to increase funding to schools last June granted us the gift of normalcy for this year. Thousands of strangers gave us this gift, strangers whom we can never properly thank.

Everyone agrees that the state should fund education. But 25 years of Prop. 13 have caused California to cut education funding so severely that we have dropped from among the top five states in the nation for achievement and per-student spending to among the bottom 10\. With an unprecedented state budget deficit facing us now, it seems certain that additional cuts to education funding are coming. While the state may have the responsibility to fund education, it is a responsibility they are abdicating.

For many in California, public education is a last resort. I believe it is our last chance. When the children in my son’s kindergarten class come of age, they will be the decision-makers for our generation. The child whose education we shortchange today will become the adult ill-prepared for the complexities of tomorrow.

The horrible trade-off that a love affair with public education carries is the knowledge that right around the corner lurks the next funding crisis. For many California districts, the crippling funding crisis has already come — the one which forces cuts so severe that the integrity of education collapses. Classes are so overcrowded that teachers can do little more than control traffic. Programs are slashed. Supplies are inadequate. Morale is shot. Hope is gone. Santa Monica and Malibu, thankfully, are not there — yet. But we could have been had Measure S failed and the cities of Malibu and Santa Monica had not voted to increase funding to school.

Last year, we faced our crippling funding crisis. More than 200 employees, including more than 90 teachers, were pink-slipped. Music and physical education programs and the library would be slashed. Class sizes would increase dramatically. It would have been the end of integrity and hope for Santa Monica and Malibu schools. Instead, the community rallied and chose to tax itself rather than allow education to crumble.

The moment I stepped into my son’s third-grade class on Sept. 4 and saw 20 students instead of the 30 that would have been there had Measure S failed, I was filled with emotion. I started to scan the students, most of whom I knew from my years of volunteering in the classrooms, and listed in my mind the students who would likely lose their love for learning had we not secured additional education funding. Then I realized, I was counting students saved by Measure S. Each Santa Monica and Malibu resident who voted “Yes on S” last June is responsible for saving those students who might not have made it through the year with a 30-1 ratio. Each Santa Monica and Malibu City Council member who voted to increase funding to education should feel confident that their vote strengthened their community. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your commitment to children, to education and to our cities.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 14, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/111403.pdf?ref=smdp.com)