State Superintendent of Schools Pat Hamamoto is right on target in asking for a chunk of the state's surplus for repairing and maintaining Hawai'i's aging public schools.

Surely other state agencies will be asking for "their fair share" too, but few things are as compelling or vital as providing Hawai'i's children with a quality education.

Whether or not you have children in the public school system, this cause deserves your support.

As Hamamoto points out: "We're talking about the future citizens of Hawai'i. My mission is to ensure they are a literate community of citizens, and to do that we need a full range of resources. We're talking about quality of life in Hawai'i."

Absolutely.

Hamamoto's request is for $359 million in capital improvement funds for school maintenance and repairs, plus another $84 million in operating funds.

That state estimates the surplus at $486 million.

The big hurdle will be convincing Gov. Linda Lingle that the schools deserve a fat slice of the surplus pie. Lingle has said she favors returning some of that surplus to taxpayers.

No doubt taxpayers are feeling the pinch. But conditions at our public schools have festered for far too long. Conditions at schools such as Nanakuli High and Intermediate — with its piles of broken and rusted desks, overheated classrooms and a dilapidated science lab — illustrate the dire need.

In fact, there are almost a hundred campuses that have been waiting for years for "relief" from substandard conditions that include crumbling walls, termite-infested floors and leaky roofs.

It's shameful that our children and our teachers endure these conditions daily.

The governor has the opportunity to change that.

With an infusion of surplus funds, those campuses — including Nanakuli — would get much-needed fixes.

If not, Hamamoto says, we'll have a much larger bill to pay to replace buildings rather than repair them.

She's right. But we'll pay a much bigger price in failing to give our kids the clean, safe environment they deserve, where they can learn to be good citizens. Are we willing to pay that price?