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The Notebook blog is a place for the exchange of ideas about education in Philadelphia. The ideas expressed on the blog are solely the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Notebook ...
About 400 students, parents, and teachers from mostly low-income school districts around Pennsylvania traveled to Harrisburg on Valentine's Day to tell Gov. Corbett how his budget cuts are hurting their opportunities for a quality education.
The cuts disproportionately affected poorer districts, which rely more heavily on state aid. Philadelphia faced a gap of more than $700 million and is still trying to cut nearly $40 million from its budget this year. Chester-Upland had to go to court to get enough funds just to stay open.
The rally was sponsored by Philadelphia Student Union, JUNTOS, and the Campaign for Nonviolent Schools from Philadelphia; Project Peace from Reading, and TeenBloc from Pittsburgh.
I was there today and it was truly inspiring. These young people were so on point with their speeches. I don't think there has been a rally like this before, with students from all over the state and I hope it keeps going. Keep going with the momentum! Great Job!
It doesn't help though that one of the schools, who have budget issues and are from Philly, got driven to the rally by charter busses. How bad does that look? I'm from reading and we took a yellow school bus there.
The money for these buses was donated. It might not "look" good in your opinion, but it's not easy at all to get yellow buses service because they are all used during the day to get students back and forth to school in our huge district. Often the only option for an event like this is charter buses.
It doesn't help though that one of the schools, who have budget issues and are from Philly, got driven to the rally by charter busses. How bad does that look? I'm from reading and we took a yellow school bus there.
The buses that transported students and parents from Philadelphia to the rally were not funded by the Philadelphia School District in any way. These buses were paid for by financially independent organizations that do not receive funding from the School District or the state. These buses were paid for largely by individual donors who answered an online appeal in support of this rally.
Oh Theresa please...don't be so petty. Clearly, you are upset that you had to ride on a yellow. Bus. I donated money for that chartered bus. Stay focused...those were private dollars. We need to focusing the public ones.
Public demonstrations, especially ones as well done and well timed as this are an important component of an overall strategy that helps elected officials point to constituents who clearly want to shift the state's priorities. Well done!
The thousands of Junior and Senior High School students affected by your draconian cuts this year, will soon turn 18 years or older, applying for or attending Colleges and/or Universities, or job hunting, when it comes time for you to run for re-election next year.
I applaud the efforts of these young people and the adults who supported them. There has to be a consistent drive to demonstrate to Harrisburg that education should be of topmost priority. Presently, it is not. The possibility of huge districts, like Philly, failing is rooted in the misconception that charters are the answer to school reform. Charters sap resources from traditional schools and yet produce, on average, no better academic results. This lack of performance occurs even with a hand-picked student population which is devoid of English language learners and special needs students. At the root level, the charter school represents a money grab. It's not about choice, it's not even about reform...it's about money. Harrisburg is complicit in this rich man's money-grab and it is SHAMEFUL! So young people, keep your protests coming. You're on the right track!!
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