California education, Little House on the Prairie style

Parents, teachers and education advocates up and down California reacted with outrage Friday to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to cut nearly $5 billion from public schools over the next 18 months.

The news that millions of dollars could be cut from categories such as class-size reduction, textbooks, preschool programs, after-school tutoring and hot lunches led one father to ask why a state that ranks among the top 10 global economies educates its children in the manner of a Third World nation.