A handful of Cleveland Metropolitan School District students gathered at a church on Cleveland's West Side Tuesday to discuss the impacts of a federal freeze on education funding and the new state budget.
The students called on the Trump administration to restore $6 billion in funding that previously went toward after-school programs, teacher training and education for immigrants and English-language learners. That amounts to about $185 million in Ohio.
"I feel mostly when they're trying to cut off scholarships, aid, funding for people who come from different countries where they were struggling and stuff, if they came here for a better life, the scholarships are basically helping them, and they're just trying to get that off, that is just wrong," said Sura Ali, a student at John Marshall School of Civic and Business Leadership.
The students said they were also concerned about state funding for education in the latest budget. They were joined by State Board of Education Member Delores Gray Ford, who represents the Cleveland area. She raised concerns about the amount of money going to vouchers in the latest budget, and said legislators meeting next week to override Ohio Governor's Mike DeWine's vetoes would harm districts' ability to generate revenue from levies. She said when taken together with the federal freeze on education funds, resources for public education are being eroded.
"You can't say you care about children, but then take away funding, take away the right for them to have a decent lunch, take away curriculum that can help them, take away programs that they need to become successful," Gray said.
The event also served as the launch for ACORN Youth Cleveland, made up of student activists at Cleveland schools. It's part of a rebirth of the Cleveland chapter of the Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN, which advocates for low- and moderate-income people, became a focal point during the 2008 presidential election, with allegations of voter fraud and court battles amid a massive push to get people registered to vote.
"There is a need for the community to come together to advocate for itself," said Marissa Clark, Ohio lead organizer for ACORN. "Unfortunately, there just hasn't been the level of involvement as far as civics as there had been in previous years. And so, it's so important for the young people to lead the charge as far civic engagement and paying attention to the issues that impact them and also the community."
The students with ACORN Youth Cleveland also launched a campaign Tuesday to get Cleveland Metropolitan School District to keep school buildings open for an extra hour on days when the weather is either too hot or too cold for students to wait outside comfortably for buses or for caregivers to pick them up.
Their proposal asks the district to use volunteers to keep an eye on things in those situations.
