Philadelphia Parents Take School Funding Plea To Harrisburg
By Jim Melwert
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Parents of students in the Philadelphia School District departed for Harrisburg Wednesday morning -- carrying thousands of letters written by children from 1st through 12th grades -- to try to convince state lawmakers to support increased funding for the city's public schools.
They're taking some 4,000 letters to Harrisburg. Some of the children who wrote those letters will read them in the Capitol Rotunda.
Hoping it gets lawmakers' attention, mom Sarah Stuart calls it heartbreaking to read some of them, as children talk about why school means so much to them:
"They only get one chance at an education and inflicting this kind of pain on them is just not something we as parents are willing to tolerate."
This comes as the district is planning to cut teachers' aides, school nurses, art, music and sports in an effort to close a $304-million budget gap.
