Growing up, Mother's Day was always about doting on my maternal grandmother. She wanted her brunch, or at the very least, a nice handmade Mother's Day card. My mother would always claim that she didn't care about the holiday, personally, we just needed to keep my grandmother happy.

To some extent, I share my mother's nonchalance about the holiday. (Perhaps to be totally fair, I would better describe my feelings as "Stupid over-commercialized holiday that can't possibly compensate for all societal gender inequity in one day but YOU'D BETTER GET ME SOMETHING NICE OR ELSE.") After all, while my life is not without its irritations, overall, it's pretty sweet right now. I get to work part time, my husband is an involved parent, and our sweet girl gives us lots of hugs and lets me know every day that she enjoys my company. One day of brunch and flowers is neither going to top that nor adequately compensate for 20 months of not quite enough sleep...

Public education, which is a free service guaranteed by the California Constitution, is no longer free. According to the Los Angeles Times, various school districts are asking parents to fork over cash in an effort to hold onto teachers after proposed budget cuts by our Governator.

South Orange County families are being urged to donate $400 per student to save the jobs of 266 teachers in the Capistrano Unified School District.

Parents at Long Beach's Longfellow Elementary are among countless statewide who are launching fundraising foundations.

Bay Area parents launched a campaign featuring children standing in trash cans; the theme is "Public Education Is Too Valuable to Waste..."

"Public education is free, but an excellent public education is not free at this point," said Janet Berry, president of the Davis Schools Foundation, which recently launched the Dollar-a-Day campaign, urging citizens of the city near Sacramento to donate $365 per child, grandchild or student acquaintance.

Gov. Ahnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting about $4.8 billion in education this year and next. In the meantime, about 20,000 teachers, librarians, nurses and other school positions have been alerted that they will be fired.

In an effort to save money, school districts are looking at increasing class sizes, closing down some schools and eliminating programs such as International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement. Don't worry, sports will also be eliminated so this budget crisis affects everyone. Everyone except those who live in wealthy school districts and can raise the funds to keep their programs.