Oakland's heartbreaking choice: Robbing Peter to save Paul

Advocates of a before- and after-school child care program in Oakland, Calif., have won another reprieve: The district's child care programs will stay up and running through December with $2.1 million in unspent funds from last school year.

After that? No one is certain.

Already, child care programming in Oakland has come at a tremendous cost: The school board voted earlier this year to keep many of its preschools, with money taken from adult education programs, which serve high school dropouts, immigrants, and the disabled. Then, in July, the district moved stimulus funds intended for staff training and required upper management to take furlough days to pay for a summer care program.

It's hard to fault the district for its efforts to save this vital and popular service, but robbing Peter to pay Paul is poor public policy. In the long run, programs that help dropouts get back into school help create communities in which fewer people must rely on other social services, such as child care.

Now that the damage has been done, however, the board should resolve to find a long-term strategy that doesn't pit one need against another.

Yes, we recognize that's far easier said than done.