Safeguard Education and Don’t Let Coronavirus Force Budget Cuts by Doha Ibrahim and Imere Williams

Posted on April 23, 2020
Categories: Blog, Insights with the Board

Safeguard Education and Don’t Let Coronavirus Force Budget Cuts

Doha Ibrahim, Student Representative on the Philadelphia Board of Education, Lincoln High School Class of 2020


Imere Williams, Student Representative on the Philadelphia Board of Education, Boys Latin Charter School Class of 2020 

 

We are members of the class of 2020. In the last few weeks, you’ve heard about us as the class who won’t get to go to prom, throw a senior prank, or share a normal graduation with our classmates and families. These things are true, but more importantly, you should know us as the class that started kindergarten in 2007, the year the great recession hit. We have been living with the consequences ever since.

In Philadelphia, this means that we have spent much of our education in classrooms with too many students, in schools without enough nurses and counselors, and under roofs that leak and may be contaminated with environmental hazards. In our specific experience, we have faced classrooms that lacked supplies, libraries without books and a district with little available technology for students.

Despite these challenges, we have made it through. And we were proud to be leaving a better and a stronger public education system behind us. After significant work and advocacy by our school communities, District leaders and elected officials, public education in Philadelphia is on the rise. Our school system is no longer in fiscal distress. The District has been slowly restoring staffing levels. Across Philadelphia the academic performance of our public schools is starting to improve. And the District was once again about to have a balanced budget that would allow for more investments in our schools. But this is now all in serious jeopardy due to the projected financial impact of COVID-19.

We don’t have the full financial picture yet, but the District is already expected to lose $60 million before July; and Mayor Kenney has made clear statements that he expects next year’s City budget to be dire. So at this critical moment, we are asking our Philadelphia community to honor the class of 2020 by ensuring that tomorrow’s public education students do not experience the educational hardships that we have lived. They deserve better.

In honor of the class of 2020, here is what we ask our Philadelphia community (including Board members, teachers, students, parents and families) to do to safeguard the education of all future classes:

  • Write to the Governor and your state legislators today and tell them that education funding is too important to cut.
  • Tell them not to send our schools backwards. The state must continue to fund
  • education at its current level and send federal stimulus funding directly to schools and districts.
  • Finally, tell them about a public education student you know, and why their educational future is too important to jeopardize.

This entry was also published by The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly high school seniors: Don’t let coronavirus force more budget cuts | Opinion