Public Education Rally Held Next to City Hall

The area was well represented at a rally in support of public education next to City Hall on Wednesday.

The rally, which was organization by Protect Public Education, a coalition that is working to fight for funding in Philadelphia's schools in the wake of cuts proposed by Gov. Tom Corbett.

One of the speakers was Kevin Peter, a parent of a former student who helped organize on Sunday.

Peter worked to rile up the crowd of over 100 that gathered at Dilworth Plaza on the west side of City Hall.

He talked about how Corbett plans to reduce state funding to the School District of Philadelphia to 2008 levels and said Corbett would be the first Pennsylvania governor since 1991 to cut basic education funding.

And Peter said he doesn't want the city's schools to have to travel into the past. He said in recent years, people haven't been moving to his area, Mt. Airy, only because they like the community—they're buying homes and living there because of the good quality of the schools.

That, Peter said, shouldn't change.

"We are not going back," he said, over and over again until the crowd joined him in the chant. "We are not going back."

Peter was eventually followed to the microphone by public school students like Jordan Bradley, who lives in West Oak Lane and attends in Mt. Airy.

"If you don't stand up for something, you will fall for anything," Bradley said. "Today, I am taking a stand."

Bradley was joyfully cheered on by her mother and family as she talked about how she wished her school had computers that worked and had physical education teachers she knew would remain employed.

She invoked Michelle Obama—a big supporter of children's exercise—when talking about exercise. And then she talked about wanting to go to college.

"If our governor is taking away the program that will take me out of Penn State, many of us will end up at state pen," she said.

Makeda Edwards, who is in eighth grade at Houston, also spoke.

Edwards will attend George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science—which is near Temple University—next year, and she'll have to take public transportation to get there.

If SEPTA student passes are cut—and they're currently being threatened—Edwards and her family will be forced to pay thousands of additional dollars in transportation costs per year.

"(I don't) want to worry about my parents struggling to pay for transportation," Edwards said.

Other parents and students spoke at the rally, and those in attendance held signs, some of which bore the names of Houston and John S. Jenks School in Chestnut Hill. School district Deputy Superintendent Leroy Nunery also addressed the crowd, and district communications officials, who attended the event, passed out signs that specifically criticized Corbett.