It is unfortunate that California's lawmakers have plunged the Golden State into near bankruptcy. It is even more unfortunate that California voters went to the polls years ago to elect these lawmakers - in most cases because the unions, the parties or legislative bigwigs funneled money into their campaigns to assure victory.

But we shouldn't take the ineptitude of those sitting in Sacramento out on California's future - its students.

Proposition 55, on Tuesday's ballot, is the companion bill to Proposition 47, approved Nov. 5, 2002, by 59 percent of the vote. It authorized more than $11.4 billion for K-12 and $1.65 billion for higher education capital projects.

The measure on Tuesday's ballot would provide funding for facilities for public schools throughout the state, including $10 billion for K-12 and $2.3 billion for higher education.

Those are big numbers. But California schools have big problems. The state currently has the third most overcrowded schools in the nation. Some 73 percent of the state's classrooms are more than 25 years old. In addition, some one million children attend schools with bathrooms that don't work.

Approval of Proposition 55 will provide funds to build the more than 22,000 classrooms that are needed to relieve overcrowding and deal with increasing enrollments.

California's higher education systems have even bigger problems. The California State University System, the state's higher education engine, is bursting at the seams. Its 23 campuses enroll about 409,000 students, granting bachelors, masters, and some doctorates. The University of California System enrolls about 201,000 students and is expecting approximately 63,000 additional students by 2010. Both systems are now forced to turn away thousands of qualified applicants for fall 2004 because they lack the funding to accommodate them.

The CSU budget, for example, has been cut more than a half billion dollars in the last two years - thanks again to our visionary Legislature. Both university systems will receive $690 million if Proposition 55 is approved. That about brings them up to where they were before the budget debacle and the current wave of student enrollments.

Meanwhile, California's Community Colleges will receive $920 million.

The CSU is California's future. It is where most of the state's doctors, lawyers and teachers get their start. Cal State Fullerton's communications and business programs are among the nation's largest and most respected programs. CSU professors have some of the heaviest teaching loads in the nation. It is not unusual to have some 230 students in one classroom. Despite the heaviest teaching loads in the nation, CSU professors win some of the nation's largest federal research grants, particularly in mathematics and the sciences.

Its professors also write some of the most important books that are assigned at many of the nation's public and private universities and colleges.

We don't see them picketing and protesting. They love their mission - to train the nation's future leaders in business, communications, health and politics. And they take their job seriously. They expect the Legislature to do the same.

Unfortunately, in recent years some CSU funds have had to be expended on remedial education in English and mathematics. In the fall of 2003, only 42 percent of first-time freshman were proficient in both English and mathematics. That is a 10-percent increase since 1998, when the CSU began testing proficiency and offering remediation classes on CSU campuses.

However, as universities experience severe budget cuts, professors must become more vocal in demanding some type of accountability at the secondary school level. Perhaps, the legislature should focus on improving secondary education instead of some of the silly bills that find their way onto the governor's desk.

Education is the only way we can assure California's exploding population, especially the children of newly arrived immigrants, make it to the middle class. California's public colleges and universities are falling behind because of the lack of investment in education resources. Soon this lack of investment will hold the state back.

An investment in education also might produce future legislators who can get California back to work.

Tony Fellow, Ph.D., is a professor of communications and heads the journalism program at California State University, Fullerton. He also is president of the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District.