It is a sign of our dark budgetary times. The Education Coalition -- a lobbying group representing the state PTA, teacher unions, school boards and administrator groups from San Diego to Redding -- has been running ads in newspapers and on radio, virtually begging the state Legislature to do the following: Give the schools their lumps, and do it quickly.

Schools are pleading not for spending increases but for pain, the swift and merciful kind. Who'd have thought it would come to this?

But the people who work for California's 5 million schoolchildren have come to a sober, grown-up realization. A $38 billion budget gap isn't going to be bridged without cuts to education. With schools making up such a huge portion of state spending, they couldn't possibly be spared. The governor's revised budget proposal, for which these school groups are now lobbying vigorously, provides $309 less per student than was allotted in the 2001-02 budget.

Having accepted that reality, school districts now want to be spared the crippling uncertainty -- for their employees, programs and students -- that mounts with each day the Legislature can't agree on a budget. The state's recent borrowing of $11 billion will assure districts' cash flow through August. After that, says California School Boards Association lobbyist Rick Pratt, "a lot starts to unravel. We're very nervous about the cash situation. Without a budget and without cash, things could come to a screeching halt at the local level."

What does that mean? Districts that were planning to open new schools could decide to leave them idle -- as Natomas may have to do come August -- to save the start-up expenses. Districts that have envisioned their worst-case scenarios -- under which they have already opted to increase class sizes for next year, shed counselors, nurses and teachers and ax "extras" such as art, P.E. and music -- will make those scenarios a firm reality, with no chance to restore programs before the beginning of the school year.

Schools are, above all, people-intensive operations. Employee morale and productivity can be shattered by uncertainty. "It's hurting our people," says Elk Grove Superintendent Dave Gordon. "Not knowing where you stand is not fair to the adults. But think of the message we're sending to our kids. Our board adopted a budget, as obligated by law, by June 30. Shouldn't the Legislature be obligated to do that, too?"

It should, but it looks increasingly as if it won't. For the schools, for the people who make them run and, most important, for the children they teach, that means more waiting, more uncertainty and more pain.