On Wednesday, June 22, we joined parents, students and underpaid workers to rally at the district offices of several legislators and call for their support of a fair PA budget. The actions were in response to years of budget cuts and fiscal mismanagement under the Corbett administration that created a $2 billion budget deficit, an educational system in disarray and too many families struggling to make ends meet.
As part of a statewide day of action on Wednesday, we called for restored funding for Pennsylvania schools and good jobs with family-sustaining wages. A $15 an hour minimum wage would raise families out of poverty and add hundreds of millions of additional dollars in the state budget to reinvest in schools and vital human services.
“I am a mom, a grandmother and a nursing home worker and I am here today because I care about the future of my community,” said Tonia Bartholomew, a nursing home worker from Erie. “We need our legislators — like Rep. Sonney — to do their part to create good jobs that we can support our families on, and that includes raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.”
In addition to demanding the legislature act to increase the minimum wage, participants called their elected leaders to enact sensible revenue policies, including a 5% severance tax on gas drilling. The proposed severance tax could be used to help increase preK-12 funding by $2 billion over the next 4 years and return the state’s share of education funding to 50%, which it has not been in 40 years.
“I’m concerned that if we don’t restore funding to where it was before Gov. Corbett’s administration that my school will have to make other cuts — like to arts and music. I’m in the school chorus and this year I’m in our musical and I’d be devastated if those programs couldn’t continue because of funding,” said Taylor Haskell, a freshman at Union City High School. “Ultimately, we need our legislators to step up, act like grownups and provide the amount of education funding me, my classmates, and students across the state need.”
Groups holding actions at legislative offices in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Erie, Emmaus, Greensburg and Luzerne delivered large “Past Due” notices to elected leaders stating that they and the state legislature were past due in improving education funding, increasing the minimum wage and making corporations, like large energy companies, pay their fair share.