As the NPC and CPPCC get underway, it is appropriate to highlight one of China's greatest challenges, establishing a world-class educational system for all her people. CPPCC Chairman Jia Qinglin said that one of the issues of common concern at the conferences is education. Specifically, China needs to assure educational access to all her children, to insure that the nine-year compulsory education mandate is realized.

The reality today is that many children, but especially migrant and rural children, are not provided with adequate education. Urban public schools turn away migrant children for a variety of reasons. Even when those children's families can afford to send them to inferior private schools, the schools may close if the developers who lease the building space to the schools, are presented with better economic opportunities to use the land. The children are then left without any school to attend.

Education is not China's top priority. Surveys of the citizens' common concerns highlight money issues, such as housing prices and the unequal distribution of wealth, as the most pressing issues. That makes sense in light of a February Reuters-Ipsos poll of people in 23 countries which found that over two-thirds of Chinese surveyed believed that "money is the best sign of a person's success." Along with South Korea, China's percentage of people equating success with money was higher than any of the other countries and over twice as high as the U.S.

But should we equate money with success? Would we prefer to be a nation of rich fools or a nation of moderate means with an educated citizenry? If a fool and his money are soon parted, would we not be better to pursue a path of wisdom for all and use our resources to build that path? If we allow developers to raze the schools of migrant children in order to realize short-term economic gains, aren't we throwing away the future of those children?

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao suggested to netizens in his February 27 online chat that the government must insure an equitable distribution of social wealth. Premier Wen said it is the government's job to "make the cake of social wealth as big as possible" and to "distribute the cake in a fair way."

But wealth is not only about money and material things. True wealth and success rest in educated citizens. The government must make and distribute the educational cake fairly too. Once a person's basic needs are met, the richness of peoples' lives exists largely in their minds, in their ability to read great books, discuss profound ideas, and think deeply about problems. Money can be lost; education cannot be lost.

As the conferences proceed, it is right that China's representatives and leaders discuss the country's economic future. Hopefully, they will remember too, that the country's real future wealth will lie in the nourishment and development of all the peoples' minds.