My to-do list includes school, spending time with friends, studying, homework, chores and school again. The more you've got on your plate, the harder it gets to choose what's most important.

So when it comes to the government and the state budget, it's tricky business to set priorities.

The state budget has to consider many things such as Hawaiian affairs, labor, health care and taxes, not to mention how to provide key services for more than a million people in the state. Despite their efforts in trying to please everyone, there must be one concern greater than the rest.

My top priority is my education, but the fact that furloughs were ever initiated makes me wonder how high education is on the state's to-do list. It is my belief that the state should make education its top priority. It may be cliché, but children are the future. Without proper schooling, Hawai'i's outcome years ahead look dim. There would be more unemployment, more homeless, and many other problems with a state filled with uneducated individuals.

If our youth get the knowledge they deserve, not only will they prosper, so will Hawai'i. Limiting school funding may be a quick fix for the present. But to ensure better times ahead, education must come first.