In early June, 16 families from C. W. Henry and Henry Houston schools went to Harrisburg to demand legislators pass a budget that allocates fair funding to Pennsylvania public schools. The day was part of a day of action organized by Children First and PA Schools Work Coalition.

Families met with Representative Raab and State Sen. Haywood’s offices to discuss the need for a $5.1 Billion dollar investment in PA public schools. They spoke with Wallace Weaver, State Senator Art Haywood’s communications director.

The HB 2370 bill represents a critical step toward providing Pennsylvania’s public schools with the funding that is necessary to make change at a statewide scale, directly benefiting over 1.5 million children.

Bandaids can no longer address the gaping wounds in public infrastructure caused by inequitable state funding structures that have been in place for generations. In our view, the state must act now. Students at CW Henry also emphasized the conditions of their school, which include crumbling bathrooms, and lack of air conditioning. Addressing these major issues, which are all too common in aging school buildings across Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, will require a significant, historic investment of public funding—one that the children of our Commonwealth deserve and is, in fact, past due.

Pennsylvania’s courts declared that our school funding system is unconstitutional because the quality of students’ education is determined by their zip code. There is a $5.1 billion gap between what the state is spending on K-12 public schools now and what students need.

It’s time for the chronic cycle of patchwork repairs to end. Public school parents and students should not have to live in fear for the health of their students, or the reality that school might close at any point.

Kressent Pottenger is a C. W. Henry School parent.