Parents, teachers complain about school cuts
More than 50 teachers and parents gathered at a forum Monday night to decry conditions they witnessed during the first week that the city's public schools were in session and to discuss solutions.
More than 50 teachers and parents gathered at a forum Monday night to decry conditions they witnessed during the first week that the city's public schools were in session and to discuss solutions.
At the forum, held at SEIU District 1201 offices in North Philadelphia, parents described scenes of cuts and chaos: classes with about 40 students where those in the back of the room take notes on their laps and can scarcely hear the teacher. Children banned from using bathrooms for five hours because the school has no hall monitors to supervise them. Teachers who bought paper for work sheets themselves, only to be told they could not use the photocopier because the school could not pay to fix it if it broke.
Deionni Martinez, a 10th grader at Kensington High School for Creative and Performing Arts, said that students in overcrowded classrooms joke that the school is now just "Kensington for and." Its banner programs have been slashed: The formerly full-time band teacher now leaves early in the day, a football coach doubles as an art teacher, and older students teach their peers in the absence of a full-time dance teacher, Martinez said.
"This isn't my second home that I'm used to. School is our second home," she said. "I don't think it's fair to any of us."
Pastor and parent Mark Tyler urged those in attendance to vote against all lawmakers who have ignored the district's funding needs. He blamed the cuts on discrimination, saying that they "wouldn't happen anywhere except a place that is predominantly black and brown and poor."
Helen Gym, another parent and activist, also told the parents in the room to look for political solutions. She suggested that parents file complaints with the state Department of Education documenting specific harm to their children.
