It's tough enough being a parent, but a recent court ruling makes it even tougher if you're the parent of a diabetic child. Two weeks ago, a Sacramento Superior Court sided with a slew of nurses' organizations -- and against thousands of public schools -- in an argument over who is able to give a diabetic child an insulin injection.

Turns out most public schools don't have a full time school nurse. Many can't afford one. So to fill the void, the schools are training other professional staff how to provide injections to diabetic students. Three organizations –- the California School Nurses Association, the American Nurses Association, and the California Nurses Association -– went to court to stop it -– and the court agreed.

At first glance it may seem reasonable; but the ruling forces many parents to make tough decisions about keeping their kids out of school, or having to leave work to administer shots themselves. It also forces school districts –- already hard pressed for cash –- to reallocate precious education dollars to nurses. And we suspect that's exactly what the nursing organizations want: more jobs and more money for nurses. The silence from the California Teachers Association is deafening. On one hand you'd think they'd want to challenge any organization threatening to take money away from the students; on the other, we suspect they're quietly applauding how the nurses lifted a play from their own Teachers Association playbook.

Regardless, schools should be encouraged to find reasonable, creative ways to protect education money; training staffers to safely handle this fairly simple task is one example of how they can do that. We urge lawmakers in Sacramento to help local school districts use their money more effectively and make it legal for schools to allow properly trained staff –- not just nurses –- to provide insulin injections to diabetic students.