Why I care about fair funding for schools

I was born to immigrant parents who both came from Portugal at different ages.  While they both attended school in Pennsylvania, my mom has told me the story of teachers placing all the second language learners in a classroom and not knowing what to do with them.  I find it so interesting that a school with a high population of immigrants didn’t have a program for English as a second language.  She learned to speak Spanish from her classmates before she learned to speak English.  Eventually my mom learned how to speak English – not because she learned at school, but because she learned it from watching cartoons on television. Nowadays, there are much easier ways for people to learn English. If you are interested in learning English through a site like Effortless English, here are 8 ways to improve your English speaking skills. 

I grew up in what was considered by most the “bad” part of town. Until I was eight I was surrounded by blue-collar workers who sometimes juggled more than two  jobs in order to feed their families.  My parents chose to send me to a Catholic school while we lived in this area.  They chose it mostly for it’s location and convenience.  

When my parents moved our family across town, they were hoping to provide my brother and I with better opportunities. A better neighborhood to live in and a better education.  I remember starting at the new school and telling my mom that everything I was now learning was so hard.  In the second grade, I already felt very behind.  I was lucky that I had teachers who were willing to spend some extra time with me until I was caught up.  

I am the first person in our family to have graduated from college.  While I know that accomplishment took a lot of hard work and effort on my part, I don’t know if I would have had that same opportunity if we had remained living in that first house.  I was lucky because the new school had programs designated to help students who needed extra help. 

My personal experience is not much different than my professional one.  I’ve worked in three different school districts and the differences in each of them were noticeable. The thing that was the most shocking was that our students were not allowed to use, read, or borrow any of the books we had in our school’s library.  The poorest schools I’ve worked in have been the ones with the least amount of resources.  I’ve seen how unfair funding typically occurs across socio-economic divides.  Those divides continue the cycle of poverty. 

Please consider getting involved so that all children, regardless of where they live and which school they attend, can have equal footing in education.  You can get involved in a multitude of ways.  

You can: 

* Support the campaign – Sign up to receive emails

* Speak out on social media – Use social media to bring attention to your state legislators

* Contact your state legislators – Use the message that the Campaign for Fair Education Funding has on it’s Get Involved page to email or tweet your legislators

* Participate in an event – The Rally for Fair Funding is occurring on Tuesday, June 23rd in Harrisburg

* Share your story – Create an account on the Hear Me platform and record your own story.  There’s power in our stories.  

* Join the campaign as an organizational member.

The Campaign for Fair Education Funding’s Get Involved page has a list of ways you can get involved.  

I’ll be getting involved on Monday, June15th from 1 – 2 pm.  I’ll be participating in a Twitter chat with Campaign for Fair Education Funding’s Twitter account 

We’ll be using the hashtag #FairFundingPA.  Head over and join the conversation with us!