California's gigantic school system is nothing but a major public jobs program with highly paid "baby-sitters" costing taxpayers $20 billion in pay and benefits.

California schools have 6.3 million K-12 students attending 9,300 public schools with 300,000 teachers and 25,000 support personnel. This vast empire is funded by $63 billion in taxes. The overseer of this massive domain, the California Department of Education, has 2,500 employees and a $300 million budget.

By comparison 600,000 students attend private or home schools without public tax support. However, these students' parents still pay a school tax to support other parents' children attending public schools.

California teachers average $56,000 in pay, making them third highest nationally. However, half the teachers are over age 46, with half of those approaching retirement. A career in public school teaching is unattractive, and California faces a dearth of upcoming teachers. If Proposition 82 is passed, there will be a further demand for nonexistent qualified preschool teachers. Parents should be gravely concerned about this lack of future public school teachers if they desire to see their children receive a decent public education.

We must also ask why California needs 4,000 school psychologists but only 1,000 school librarians. The focus on children's mental well-being while reading capabilities takes a backseat, requiring fewer library books and librarians, is another example of a school system gone awry.

The need for police officers to patrol schools is another problem. The Los Angeles Unified School District has 327 officers patrolling schools. In San Francisco, 22 officers patrol schools, with 20 more to be added. The San Diego Unified School District has 38 officers patrolling schools, while the Sacramento City Council just assigned 10 officers to the Sacramento School District. San Leandro had to assign 30 officers to San Leandro High School after gang brawls erupted.

California's schools, controlled as they are by politicians and school bureaucrats, are bogged down by legislation and red-tape-ridden administrative guidelines. Politicians dictate what is taught and how it is to be taught. The California Education Code is indicative of "education by politician," with the expected results: the dumbing down of the curriculum, with teachers emphasizing the passing of mandated school funding tests instead of learning.

One area in which public schools are particularly deficient throughout the United States is teaching of the Constitution. A recent national poll found that only 25% of American adults could identify any of the five rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Americans must know the rights that neither the federal nor state government can take from them. However, politicians need a servile populace who do not understand or know their constitutional rights, and public schools by dictate teach accordingly.

Originally, public schools were run locally by parents. Government stepped in to create uniform education with compulsory attendance. Taxes were passed to support public schools even when taxpayers had no children or children attending public schools. Elective local school boards were created. As a result, public schools became government schools.

And in California those government schools provide no certification as to their capabilities in educating a child's mind. You cannot sue a school for malpractice if your child does not receive an education. Parents are no longer allowed to determine what happens in their local government school or the quality of education their children are receiving. That is decided for them by politicians and school bureaucrats who "know better" as a result of their government school education.

We must end "education by politician" and school bureaucrats and any further waste of taxpayer funds to a dysfunctional problem-ridden government school system. Here are the steps we must take:

• Eliminate public school taxes.
• Dismantle the California Department of Education.
• Repeal the politicized education code.
• Disband local boards of education.
• Return control of schools to community parents.
• Let free enterprise create competitive private schools.
• Remove politics forever from education.

California's public schools are the comatose dying patient in intensive care. Their medical file bears the capital letters DNR: Do Not Resuscitate. Let public schools die a DNR death, then cremate the remains and let competitive free-enterprise schools arise from the ashes. Genuine education can take place in a crime-free atmosphere with teaching based on local parents' demands in privately run schools that provide a real learning process.