If you think Californians won't pay more to improve their schools, or even to cling to the quality of the schools they've got, you haven't met Stuart White. While listening to radio one day recently, he heard about the state's budget crisis and decided to take up a collection for the state, gathering money from his friends and adding it to some he had earned doing yard work. It amounted to a little more than $100.

Stuart White is 9 years old.

"I thought I should collect money so they would stop charging the \[school\] district," he said by phone the other day, pausing from recess at Alexander Valley Elementary School for an interview. If Stuart's understanding of state education finance is still evolving, he is not alone. They don't teach Proposition 98 in third grade, or much of anywhere, for that matter. But he had heard his parents talk about budget woes hanging over his Sonoma County school district, which may have to cut $126,000 worth of music programs, library hours and textbooks. He wanted to help.

Stuart's teacher, Peggy Maddock, aided the collection effort, which was initially meant to be sent to Gov. Gray Davis. After careful consideration, however, Stuart and his classmates decided to give half the money to their own district. Maddock said her students have "a clear understanding that there isn't enough money in the school budget to fund schools the way they're supposed to be funded." What an unfortunate lesson to learn at such a young age. But how nice that the students' first instinct was charity.