Education rally draws thousands to Capitol

Students, teachers, parents and principals converged on the Capitol Monday to chastise government leaders for cuts to public school funding and to ask for more money for their schools.

About 2,000 rally participants chanted "S-O-S, Save Our Schools" and raised homemade banners urging elected officials to make children their priority. Several school officials told of how state funding cuts have resulted in fewer teachers, larger classes and program cuts to everything from athletics to tutors to teacher training.

"All of us are here today to send a message to our political leaders and the people of this state that our kids must come first," said Carol Lupardus, president of the Missouri School Boards' Association and chairwoman of the Missouri Education Roundtable, a collaboration of eight education groups that organized the Jefferson City rally.

"We're not here to point fingers. We're here to demand that our schools be adequately funded," she said.

Public elementary and secondary schools are expected to receive about $177 million less in basic state aid this school year than the $2.7 billion they originally were budgeted to receive last year.

Jackson School District superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson and board president Gerald Adams attended an informal meeting with legislators in Jefferson City but did not take part in the rally.

"It was an opportunity for us to get better informed about some of the issues," Anderson said. "But being an election year, we probably won't see a lot of things happening."

A midyear spending cut by Democratic Gov. Bob Holden lowered last year's total to balance the budget. The Republican-led legislature cut a little deeper when preparing this year's budget, which Holden reduced even further -- again to balance a budget he claims was underfunded by the legislature.

"I think it was a consensus from the speakers we heard that we'll have a better idea in April whether there will be any revenues for the governor to release," Anderson said.

Fearing more cuts next school year unless the state provides additional money, the Centralia School Board asked its high school principal to identify $200,000 of savings. Principal Darin Ford said that could mean elimination of the gifted student program, the in-school suspension supervisor, freshman sports and one of two counselors, among other things.

Truman High School junior Gillian Joy, 17, of Independence said funding cuts forced the elimination of 207 teaching positions in her district, making the remaining teachers more stressed and less able to spend personal time with students.

"I'm worried I'm not getting the education or experiences I need from public school," Joy told those gathered at the rally.

'Not enough to go around'

Walter Bayer, a parent of two children in the Ferguson-Florissant School District, said he attended the rally because he's afraid money won't be available for his children's education.

"There's just not enough to go around. They ought to cut something else besides the schools. Our kids are important," Bayer said.

The Missouri School Boards' Association held its legislative forum ahead of the Capitol rally, where it urged school board members to lobby legislators and the governor for more education money.

Holden and Republican legislative leaders have blamed one another for school funding cuts while declaring education to be their top priority, and they continued to do so Monday.

"They sent me a budget that was overpromised and underfunded and further shortchanged our schools," Holden told the school boards group during a separate event at a nearby convention center.

House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, R-Warson Woods, later responded: "The governor needs to spend the money that's been appropriated for education."

Legislative leaders have promised not to cut education funding but also don't plan on providing much new money for schools.

Sen. Michael Gibbons, chairman of the Tax Policy Committee, told the school boards "there is no quick fix that solves education funding in the state of Missouri." Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, implored educators to give lawmakers time to improve education funding.

"If we use that opportunity to build for the future, then enduring some pain for a few years, at least we know we have a vision, a sense of direction," he said.