The polls are in. And so are the test scores. Despite terrorism, the recession and our other problems, education still leads the list of public concerns.

Our lead candidates for governor, Gov. Gray Davis and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, argue that education is a top priority. Both point to the mixed results of recently released statewide test scores to justify divergent positions on the education budget. Yet both candidates are missing the point.

Real improvements in education require looking beyond test scores and budgets to see whether we are providing children with what they need to learn: qualified teachers; comfortable classrooms free of rats and cockroaches; and adequate textbooks and materials. Every day, in classrooms across California, millions of children try to learn without the bare essentials. To each child in one of these classrooms, those facts matter more than average test scores. And overall budget increases alone do not solve any of these problems.

To be sure, money is essential to education. But it is not enough. Over the past three years, we have allocated $1.3 billion for textbooks, but thousands of children still have no books for homework. Billions more have been spent on school facilities, but far too many children still have no working bathroom to use. More than 150 California schools have a majority of teachers who lack even the most basic teacher training. Why don't children have what they need to learn? Because no one is accountable for these conditions.

No one in the state accepts responsibility for making sure students have the bare essentials they need to learn. The state does not require that textbooks actually reach the children who need them, that children be protected from slum conditions in schools or that children have some chance of being taught by a trained teacher. When problems are disclosed, the state blames local school districts. But the state controls almost all education funding and has complete legal authority over school districts.

These facts lie at the heart of a class action lawsuit, Williams v. State, filed by civil rights and volunteer lawyers on behalf of children in woefully substandard schools across the state. The case aims to enforce the state's long-settled constitutional duty to ensure that children have access to an education. Set for trial several weeks before the November election, the Williams case presents the state and candidates with a critical opportunity.

Will the state continue its hugely expensive fight to avoid responsibility for what goes on in California classrooms, or will state leaders begin the process of creating a truly effective system of educational accountability? If we are to have effective local control of schools, how can we ensure that local school districts have the resources they need? When schools or entire districts fail their children, who will be held responsible for taking timely, effective corrective action? Can we reduce state micro-management of local district affairs in areas that matter very little to students and divert those resources to helping districts deliver educational essentials?

On these crucial questions, political campaigns are silent. But voters are listening.

Blasi is professor of law. The students in his Public Policy Advocacy course contributed to this piece.