About 20 South-Western City Schools' teachers gathered outside Park Street Intermediate School in Grove City before classes Wednesday morning to call for changes to the proposed Ohio state budget, which includes major funding cuts to public schools.
South-Western is set to lose close to $13 million under the state’s proposed school funding formula. Overall, around $100 million in state money would be cut from Ohio public schools.
Teachers wore South-Western Education Association t-shirts and waved pom-poms. They chanted, “What do we want? Fully funded schools!” and listed resources they wanted for their students, from smaller class sizes and new chrome books to basics like pencils and tissues.
Many carried signs calling on Brian Stewart, the chair of the House Finance Committee and the Republican representative for Grove City and Circleville, to fight to fully fund schools.
“Brian Stewart is currently debating the governor's budget as chair of the Finance Committee. It's the budget bill, which right now takes our students from what they were promised, (which is) access to fully funded, high quality public education that provides necessary resources for academic success and future opportunity,” said Emmalee Harding, spokesperson for the South-Western Education Association and a 7th grade English language arts teacher.
She called the funding cuts, “deplorable,” and added, “some cuts don’t heal.”
Ohio Education Association treasurer Rob McFee attended the demonstration. He thanked teachers for doing their jobs and lamented the possible $12.6 million in cuts to South-Western’s budget.
“How do you recover from that? What do we know? We know that 90% of school age children are taught in public schools. We know 95% of kids with special needs are taught in public school,” McFee said.
Teachers then chanted as they walked into the building.
Earlier Wednesday, another demonstration took place at Columbus City Schools' Wedgewood Middle School near the Hilltop. CCS Superintendent Angela Chapman has said the district will lose around $45 million in the next two school years under the new funding formula.
Columbus City Schools is the largest district in the state, with about 47,000 students. South-Western is the state's second-largest district with around 21,000 students.
The demonstrations in both districts were part of the “National Day of Action to Protect Students and Families.” The coordinated effort across the U.S. focused both on state budget cuts and cuts to the U.S. Department of Education. Harding said “tens of thousands” of educators, students, parents and community members were expected to mobilize around the country.
She said that if the U.S. Department of Education continues to be dismantled, the district’s most vulnerable students, like those who receive Title 1 and special education services, will be at risk. Title 1 funding supports low-income students.
“Our students are risking losing lots of supports that they need to be successful. They deserve a high quality education and we need the funding to provide that for them and their support,” Harding said.
