Most of the time the public eye is turned to what's wrong with public education: The unions that care more about power than children, elected leaders who decide school policies based on their political value and indecipherable test scores. Because of that we often don't focus on what's right.

Do that, and you'll see administrators who strive, against great odds, to create a thriving learning environment for students. You'll spot teachers who become role models and inspire their students to greatness. You'll notice, behind the scenes, enthusiastic staff members who keep the gears oiled and the engines humming. And you'll find hard- working students who go to class every day, participate and do their homework on time, and not because they have to, but because they want to succeed. You just don't usually hear about those people.

Today, as Long Beach Unified and other school districts on traditional schedules return for the new academic year, we'd like to remember, and recognize, that many of those who are trusted with educating the vast majority of the next generation of Americans actually deserve that trust.

Despite a popular misconception, not everyone in public education is just there to collect a paycheck. Every profession has its burnouts, it incompetents and its union-protected discontents holding out a few more years until their pensions kick in, but at most schools they aren't in the majority any more. These days, the ones who enter teaching as a default career, who think it's going to be easy, or who are shocked to find out how little it pays, tend to weed themselves out by the third or fourth year. Most who stay are there because they want to be.

We hear often from readers who have reached the conclusion that public education is in shambles. In some places it certainly is, and when the media can shine light on those trouble spots, they do a service.

Other coverage that can appear negative isn't necessarily so, at a time when society is aggressively pushing the educational system to do better. Studies are released almost daily from think tanks, nonprofit research centers, universities and internal committees that say much the same thing: Here are ways to improve. Here are suggestions that can make the system help more students, become more efficient, and come closer to its own ideals.

The alternative, if the public turned it back on education and stopped calling attention to its successes and failures, would be far worse. So long as the majority of residents support the concept of universally accessible public education, and finance the system through tax dollars, we all have a stake in it. Having a stake means taking an interest.

There is a group we didn't mention earlier in our list of those people who contribute to education: parents. The parents who actually do their part, take an active role in their child's education, giving them time and tools they need to succeed in school and life.

It's one of the toughest jobs in education, and, for better or worse, the most necessary. Some students can rise without parental support, but most flounder.

It doesn't take much for parents to make a difference. It starts simply with getting a child to school on time and safely. It's making sure they have the right equipment, the right food in their bellies, and the right frame of mind. It's about knowing what's expected at school and following through on reinforcement positive when a student tries his best, and negative when he doesn't. For the younger children, studies have shown that reading aloud with parents daily has an amazing effect on a child's classroom abilities. It's not rocket science, but it does take time.

We don't want to leave readers with the impression that we're becoming Pollyanna-ish about this subject. We know that public education has a long, long list of problems.

But for today, let's scratch that word and call them challenges instead. And at the start of a new school year, let's give a hand to all those who are prepared to meet those challenges, and do their best to give children the incredibly precious gift of education.