By Jenn Wright
Staff Writer
Members of City Council received a sweet surprise Thursday April 12th when parents of school district students hand delivered baked goods. Following, parents and students gathered at City Hall for a rally to talk about Governor Corbett’s $900 million education budget cuts.
Education Voters of Pennsylvania backed this “Not-a-real-bake-sale” with parents and the community who organized it. The message was, “There aren’t enough cookies in Pennsylvania.”
The two-part event began with the parents delivering cookies to the chambers of City Council with the intention of expressing dissatisfaction about the budget cuts.
Afterward, about sixty people gathered on the north side of City Hall for a brief rally.
People in attendance included Senator Vincent Hughes as well as Representative Eugene DePasquale.
“When someone says there’s not enough money in Harrisburg to fully fund public education,” Senator Hughes said, “they’re lying!”
“With a billion dollar gap, we can’t do it.” said Parent of two at Cook-Wissahickon, Rebecca Poyourow.
As a key organizer Poyourow gathered with parents from around Philly over the last month organizing the effort.
Parents who spoke expressed frustration about crowded classrooms, teaching layoffs and cuts to art, music and language classes.
Parent Sabra Townsend, whose child go to James Dobson Elementary, brought a flyer with her for an actual bake sale to support an after school math program at Dobson.
Not the first ‘Mock Bake Sale’ of its kind, similar types of event were held in Harrisburg and Shippensburg on Monday April 9th.
At the end of his speech Senator Hughes asked how much the cookies costed. Education Voters PA Executive Director Susan Gobreski answered, “How much do you wanna pay? 50 cents?”
Senator Hughes, after hearing the cookies were meant to be free, agreed, “Well, every little bit counts.”
Representative Jim Roebuck, the Democratic education chairman who is running again on April 24th, told the crowd that “You have my commitment as long as I am in Harrisburg.”
Contact Jenn Wright at jwright@scienceleadership.org