On Monday, March 24, students, teachers and superintendents from public schools across the state rallied at the University of Massachusetts Campus Center. The action came as the State Joint Committee on Ways and Means held a session focusing on education in the same building.
Protesters were advocating for the state budget to allocate more to K-12 school districts, many of which are facing budget cuts.
Those testifying in front of the committee included Chancellor Javier Reyes, Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler, UMass President Marty Meehan and Student Trustee Felicity Olivera. Testimony from many others stretched until late in the day.
Schools ranging from Amherst, Pelham, Hampshire, Northampton and Wachusett had students, staff and faculty present.
Jonathan Sivel, a paraeducator, said he was laid off during previous budget cuts.
“When these cuts happen, I get affected [2-to-3] times,” Sivel said. “My own children, the quality of their education, suffers. I suffer professionally in my role. My career gets kind of limited and the schools don’t have the capacity or the resources to develop teachers the way that they would like to.”
“Right now, the decisions that the state is making and the way it’s captured in the legislative process isn’t adequate for the increases and expenses that the schools are seeing,” Amy Kalman, a teacher at Amherst Regional High School, said. “We need to change the way that we’re funding the school.”
“Our local politicians pass the buck on to the state and say that it’s the state funding formula that caused these budget shortfalls,” Sivel said. “That certainly contributes and has a role, but they’ve also made very deliberate decisions about where they would rather put that money that might otherwise go to schools.”
“It’s not a momentary crisis,” Thomas Fricke, a social studies teacher, said. “This is a system of failing to plan ahead.”
Teachers pointed to cuts reducing the number of programs, like world languages and special education, that fall outside the primary education students receive.
“We used to have Automotive (Technology), Culinary Arts … a whole variety of programs that we can no longer offer students, and now we’re cutting to the bottom,” Kalman said.
“We won’t have as many faculty members … we’ll be spread much thinner.” Sam Camera, assistant principal at Amherst Regional High School, said.
Over 400 students, staff and faculty members traveled to the Campus Center, prompting university officials to limit access to some attendees outside the Campus Center Auditorium, as every seat was filled. When people left, more were let into the packed room.
Outside, students held signs and chanted, “What do we want? School funding! When do we want it? Now!”
“This has really been this whole community effort,” Sivel said. “Teachers, students, parents, the school administration in the central office, the superintendent’s office, even school committee members have been supportive of the students’ effort to come out and demonstrate for their school funding.”
“It’s great to have this level of student engagement; students and families had an option to participate or to not participate,” Kalman said. “We had an overwhelming response.”
Daniel Frank can be reached at [email protected].
Bella Astrofsky can be reached at [email protected].
Kalina Kornacki can be reached at [email protected].
