http://www.philly.com/...
After funding for public schools in Pennsylvania was reduced by $1 billion dollars in 2011, approximately 20,000 positions were eliminated. The effects of these cuts continue, with the Philadelphia School District cutting another 4,000 positions, including a couple thousand teaching positions and guidance counselors. The Republican Governor and Republican controlled legislature (because of gerrymandering) now propose a 1% increase in public school funding, while they also approved another $300 million in new corporate tax cuts. They are also building a new $400 million prison outside of Philadelphia. The following is a poem that a 9th grade student in Philadelphia wrote to the Governor in response.
Excerpts:
by Siduri Beckman - a poem for Gov. Corbett
"I've got something
to say.
It won't take long
Just as long as it took you
to snatch everything away
One fourth of the body is
the leg
You have crippled us
Cursing us to hobble
all of our lives.
You see us as a problem
the classic class problem
INNER CITY streaked like mud across our faces
they're all on the street anyway.
Thrusting fear
into our hearts
Why make us feel
so small
helpless
Forgotten by the people
whose duty it is to remember
Turn your back on your city
that chose not to choose
you
Because they feared
and now do all fears dawn true.
We will show ourselves to be
as formidable a foe
as all of those frackers
who you refuse to tax.
Dismiss us
We cannot vote.
But in this country
we can speak."
(maybe this is why the Repubs are trying to kill arts and humanities education in public schools)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/...
The state-appointed commission that controls the Philadelphia School District approved its "doomsday budget" because the state is only coming up with a token amount of additional funding, after massive cuts in funding 2 years ago. Another 4,000 jobs are being eliminated in the Philadelphia School District, on top of 2 years of previous job cuts. The articles say 3,700, but a second round of cuts are being made shortly.
http://articles.philly.com/...
Excerpt:
"The list includes 676 teachers, 283 counselors, 127 assistant principals, and 1,202 aides.
“These … employees are more than numbers: these are people — professionals — who play important roles in the lives of thousands of students throughout our city,” Hite said at a news briefing.
The Superintendent called the layoffs “nothing less than catastrophic for our schools and students."
Much much about what is being done to Pennsylvania at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/...