RALEIGH - As the father of two students in the Wake County public schools, I have seen, day-in and day-out, the teaching and learning that occurs in our schools. Visiting other cities in my travels and on Chamber of Commerce Inter-city trips, I have learned how fortunate we are to have such an outstanding public school system when compared to almost any similar city in the country.

And as a small-business owner, I understand the need to balance budgets, live within one's means, operate in a competitive environment and prepare for an uncertain future.

By all of these lights, the decision of the Wake County Board of Commissioners to underfund our school system for the coming year is difficult to comprehend. Their decision to provide $36 million less than the amount requested by the school board will have serious, negative effects on the ability of our teachers, principals and school system as a whole to continue to provide the high level of education that we too often take for granted.

Moreover, the programming cuts that the school board will be forced to make jeopardize the long-term economic health of our region.

The best way to understand what is happening in our schools is to visit them and spend time with students and teachers. My wife and I have attended high school football games, wrestling matches and middle-school softball games, chaperoned student trips to New York and St. Louis, organized fundraisers and volunteered in the classroom. We have welcomed in our home a diverse array of students of different races, religions and backgrounds.

We saw our children and their friends learning, growing, being challenged and having their eyes opened to new opportunities.

Teachers work hard and principals juggle the demands of numerous stakeholders -- parents, administrators, teachers, students, and, yes, even politicians. Now they are told to do more -- decrease dropout rates, improve student scores, challenge the AG students and lift up the underachievers, and, by the way, do it all in one of the fastest-growing school systems in the nation.

The citizens of Wake County rightfully have high expectations for our schools. We want the best for our children. We're worried about their future, and want to make sure they have the very best preparation for the challenges that lie ahead. Being "average" is not good enough.

Just as we aren't satisfied with "average" grades by our children, we shouldn't be satisfied with "average" schools. And as our region continues to grow, "just keeping up" with the growth is not good enough. In this increasingly competitive world, if we aren't moving forward, we're sliding backward.

Our future quality of life will depend upon the intellectual capital of our region's workforce. Educating well only 5 percent, 20 percent or even 50 percent of our population is a prescription for failure. We have a responsibility, even a necessity, to educate all of our children, and the public schools are the only vehicle that can do that.

No other expenditure by our county will yield higher returns or make a greater difference in the long-run than the financial support of public education. Current policies and trends to shortchange our schools must be reversed and rectified, before it is too late.

The Wake County Board of Education will have no choice but to make substantial cuts in order to operate within the financial constraints placed upon them by the county commissioners. These cuts may involve the elimination of arts, music or athletic programs; perhaps ending the magnet program that has been integral to successful school diversification and parental choice; limiting foreign language offerings (particularly shortsighted in this global economy); or curtailing vocation training, advanced electives or other components of our public education programs.

In whatever area, cuts will, in fact, occur. Those who believe otherwise are either naive, misinformed or have forgotten my grandmother's saying that "you can't get blood from a turnip."

While we are rightfully proud of our area universities, our downtown redevelopment, our tree-lined neighborhoods and our successful companies, no accomplishment is more worthy of our celebration than the education of children. No institution is more worthy of our support than our public schools. And no investment is better spent than the funding for the students on whom our future depends.

(Gray Styers is an attorney with a Raleigh law firm.)

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