It’s back-to-school time once again, but the end-of-summer ritual, normally dressed up in the new clothes of optimistic expectation, seems a little shabby this time around.

Returning students are likely to find bigger class sizes, fewer teachers and a limited choice of programs, as school districts statewide cut a combined $500 million from payrolls last year, according to the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials. Some districts are spending cash reserves down to dangerous levels, even to depletion, the association adds.

Property owners are seeing their tax rates creep ever-upward with no corresponding improvement in the instructional or extracurricular programs.

The return of 1.8 million Pennsylvania schoolchildren should serve as a reminder of public education’s one overriding objective: to educate our children. More specifically, public education was conceived as the most effective, most economical way of providing education for every child.

But such a straightforward objective has become clouded and elusive in recent years. The increasing cost prompts some of us to ask why public schools must remain such a high priority. Why burden ourselves with public education at all?

School districts across Pennsylvania are digging themselves out of a financial quagmire. They’ve faced a combination of setbacks, some of which began with the real estate collapse of 2008, while others, long festering, were flushed out by it.

A report released in June by the Pennsylvania Associations of School Administrators and School Business Officials reveals the immensity of the crisis:

• Federal stimulus and jobs programs, intended to soften the blow, ended nearly as soon as they’d begun. Federal aid to Pennsylvania school districts was reduced by more than $1 billion in 2010-11.

• State funding to districts was reduced as well, by $433 million in 2009-10 and another $85 million in 2010-11.

• Simultaneously, the recession eroded local revenue. Districts during 2010-2011 lost more than $300 million in investment earnings from the decline in interest rates, while realty transfer tax revenue was cut in half, from almost $280 million in 2005-06 to less than $150 million in 2010-11, and earned income tax fell by $14 million in 2009-10 as unemployment increased.

• Schools also have been hit with unprecedented increases in the cost of mandated school pension payments.

• Another blow is coming: federal sequestration is expected to deprive the state’s districts of another $50 million.

There are no easy remedies; certainly no painless ones. In the shadow of sequestration, the state government projects a deficit of between $500 million and $1 billion in the current fiscal year.

The state’s largest teachers union blames Gov. Tom Corbett for perpetuating the school crisis. Mike Crossey, head of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, criticizes Corbett for pushing education cuts while backing new tax cuts for corporations.

The criticism seems short-sighted. Economic incentives not only raise the revenue needed to operate public schools, but they also creates and retains jobs for the graduates. The two issues seem intertwined and interdependent, making economic development as much a priority as education.

A commitment to public education is one hallmark of a vibrant culture. An educated populace drives the economy, arts, recreation and government, all of which are duty-bound to support education.

In this back-to-school season, let’s recommit ourselves to the reasons why we support public education; the details of how we support it will fall in place.