A FULL STAFF OF SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS are about to be restored to our high school campuses after being missing in action for several years.

On Monday night, the City Council will vote on authorizing an agreement between the Ventura Unified School District and the Ventura Police Department to reinstate this valuable program citywide and I couldn't be more thrilled that this is finally happening. I expect it to pass overwhelmingly.

The city and schools partnered to bring back this much-needed program which was whittled away year after year and finally pulled due to a loss of grant funding and the city's need to put the officers back out on patrol to reduce 911-call response times. One officer was put back at Buena High School in January but more were needed.

The SRO program is a true example of "you can pay a little now or a lot later." The right intervention can make all the difference in a young life. These three officers will also respond to calls around the areas of the schools, provide law-related information to students and parents, maintain a safe environment and perform a myriad of other duties.

The SROs will also work with the School Attendance and Review Board to visit the homes of children who are truant from school. There is often a reason why these kids aren't in school and it isn't pretty.

I KNOW WE'D ALL LIKE TO THINK that there aren't drugs, alcohol and gangs at our campuses, but sadly, it's all there. In the past, the SROs have even been able to solve outside crimes by working through tips gleaned from students.

I've been helping to highlight the value of this program for years. One year through Save Our Schools we privately raised enough money to buy back the middle school SRO for one year. I volunteered my time to make phone calls for the city's Public Safety Initiative which would have restored the program. It failed after receiving 61 percent of the vote. I have addressed the City Council numerous times on this issue and sat on a task force with the Chamber of Commerce to help study ways to privately raise funds. None of this solved the problem.

Where is the city's half of the funding coming from now? It will come from the new 911 fee, which will offset the city's costs for operating the 911 call center and free up dollars for the SROs and a roving team of officers for trouble spots in the city. In all the hubbub over the fee, what it will actually pay for has been lost in the squabbling.

It hasn't been easy for the school district to come up with its half of the funding, either, in these troubled budget times. But they considered it a priority and made it happen.

If the program helps put just one young person back on track, the long battle will have been worth it.

SOMETIMES IT TAKES those affected the most by the decisions our legislators make to really drive a point home. In a spirited rally held in Ventura today to protest cuts to education, the stage was filled with politicians, educators and activists, yet the impassioned words of Foothill High School senior Lucas Zucker were what filled my mind as I drove home:

"Sacramento should be ashamed of themselves if this budget passes. They're betraying me, they're betraying my little brother, they're betraying all of us."

The governor's proposed cuts to public education of $4.8 billion obviously weren't sitting very well with the more than 500 students, parents, teachers and others who gathered at Buena High School and hooted and clapped at nearly every point. Waving homemade signs, the crowd marched down Victoria Avenue to the Government Center after the rally.

Zucker was just one of three student leaders who spoke at the rally along with Assemblyman Pedro Nava, State Senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson, Congressional candidate Jill Martinez, Ventura County Superintendent of Schools Chuck Weis, Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett, Ventura Superintendent Trudy Arriaga, Ventura Board of Education President John Walker, Ventura Board of Education Vice President Mary Haffner, Ventura County Board of Education Trustee ML Peterson, Ventura County Community College District Trustee Stephen Blum, and California Teachers Association Secretary Dan Vaughn.

Assemblyman Pedro Nava, who is always a powerful speaker, led off the invited guests by reminding the crowd of his roots: "I am a proud product of public education."

State Senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson also fired up the crowd when she asked, "Why is it you get it and they don't? Education is the foundation of this country. Education gives us the opportunity to live the American dream."

She pointed to a fact which should give us all reason to pause: This state spends $7,000 a year to educate a child and $45,000 to house a prisoner, which prompted College District Trustee Stephen Blum to later add, "We want to be first in education, not in incarceration."

CTA Secretary Dan Vaughn, who drove all the way from Burlingame for the event, shared some of the stories the CTA has heard on its "Cuts Hurt" Bus Tour across the state. "We were in a district the other day and 24 of the 26 teachers received (layoff) notices."

Congressional candidate Jill Martinez praised the crowd for taking action: "I grew up in the '60s. I'm used to demonstrating. We ended the war in Vietnam."

It was an afternoon of powerful speeches - punctuated by the Buena drumline - and aching feet from marching all the way down Victoria as motorists honked and waved.

My compliments to students Jana Plat of Buena High School and Julianne Spurlin of Ventura High School who also gave articulate and fiery speeches. It takes a lot of courage to speak in front of a large crowd, especially when you're surrounded on stage by high-profile adults. These young people are our future leaders.

For the sake of Lucas Zucker's little brother and the thousands of other children out there, I hope somebody was listening.

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Governor Schwarzenegger has finally met his match: the moms of Ventura.

Over the last few weeks I have watched in wonder as the most dedicated women I have ever known prepare for the upcoming rally on Friday, April 18 at the Buena High School Quad at 4 p.m. to protest the governor's $4.8 billion in cuts to public education. Our own school district is looking at a $4 million hit.

They've made and distributed thousands of flyers, printed hundreds of pre-addressed postcards, talked to parent, teacher and student groups, alerted the media, organized, planned and planned again. And they've done this while holding down jobs, driving kids to soccer practices and helping with math homework.

Wow.

If they can do this, surely our legislators can figure out a way to quit the partisan bickering and give our kids the education system they deserve.

We're going to have a spirited event on Friday with many speakers including Assemblyman Pedro Nava, State Senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson, Congressional candidate Jill Martinez, Ventura County Superintendent of Schools Chuck Weis, Ventura Superintendent Trudy Arriaga, Ventura Board of Education President John Walker, Ventura Board of Education Vice President Mary Haffner, Ventura County Board of Education Trustee ML Peterson, VUEA President Stephen Blum, California Teachers Association Secretary Dan Vaughn and student leaders.

I am calling on everyone who cares about the future of our children to attend this rally and show their support. We need to make our voices heard all the way up to Sacramento. It's that important.

We've also joined forces with the online organization Right to Learn, part of YouthNoise, which is sponsoring rallies across the state on the same day.

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SOMETIMES IT IS NECESSARY to go out of your comfort zone when it comes to advocating for what you believe in. Five years ago I, along with many other Ventura parents who had never been politically active before, formed a group called Save Our Schools to deal with impending education budget cuts. We raised money and later held a rally at the Ventura County Government Center that drew nearly 1,000 people.

Here we are five years later in the same leaky boat. I'm a true believer that every child deserves a chance to succeed and that it is our responsibility as a great and moral country to adequately fund public education. Our governor's current proposed cut of $4.8 billion to our schools fails to do that.

Our schools do miraculous things with the resources they have, and yet I am tired of hearing teachers tell me they spend thousands of their own dollars to buy supplies for their classrooms, that they can't adequately reach all children with these often huge class sizes and that there is not enough funding for P.E., libraries, counseling, technology, music and art. I am sick of watching our kids go door to door hawking cookie dough just to raise money for a field trip.

We are 46th in the nation in per pupil funding. This is all despite the fact that California has a relatively high capacity to fund its schools, as measured by per capita personal income. Our governor recently commissioned a group of experts to propose dramatic education reform. This committee concluded we need to spend another $10.5 billion in this state just to get the job done right. Yet our governor decided to take away $4 billion instead.

SO WE ARE GOING to rally again. Please join us on Friday, April 18 at the Buena High School Quad at 4 p.m. We're going to have a spirited event with many speakers including Assemblyman Pedro Nava, State Senate candidate Hannah-Beth Jackson, Congressional candidate Jill Martinez, Ventura County Superintendent of Schools Chuck Weis, Ventura Superintendent Trudy Arriaga, Ventura Board of Education President John Walker, Ventura Board of Education Vice President Mary Haffner, Ventura County Board of Education Trustee ML Peterson, VUEA President Stephen Blum, and California Teachers Association Secretary Dan Vaughn. We will announce more important speakers and entertainment as the event draws closer. Please check back here and at the Ventura Education Partnership web site for updates.

I am calling on everyone who cares about the future of our children to attend this rally and show their support. We need to make our voices heard all the way up to Sacramento. It's that important.