March 24, 2009 Advocates bring children's voices to Beacon Hill Play video

(NECN: Leslie Gaydos) - Most kids were in school this morning, but they had plenty of people looking out for them at the State House.

The grassroots group "Stand For Children" delivered more than 7000 postcards to lawmakers signed by citizens urging them to support public schools during these tough economic times.

Mollie Garberg/Lexington: Stand for Children is here today to bring children's voices to Beacon Hill and make sure the legislature understands and makes sure the federal stimulus money is used as the governor has proposed to increase chapter 70 funding to at least minimum levels. And to make sure that we have new revenue sources for education funding moving forward, and the hotel and meals taxes the governor is proposing are really great ideas. Make sure the legislature helps cities and towns make sure that we have the ability to health benefit savings. We need to have long-term solutions for education funding here in Massachusetts.

There are things that we can do that isn't always about dollars. However from the federal government with stimulus money you can see that education is a priority as it should be. We need the state and cities to understand that by educating our children it is an investment that we will get in return two fold in the future for attracting employer groups. Having a future where our children are viable and can be a strong contributor into the community.

The group wants lawmakers to know that teacher layoffs,

school closings and program cuts can not be an option. Boston schools superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson praised their efforts.

“I hope that those have influence and power to hear our voices really join with us to say we are going to invest in our children first before anything else is funded.”

Lowell city manager Bernie Lynch said his district would see layoffs in the coming year.

“The issue is when the economy is bad; the demand for government services does not go down. Its not like a widget factory, in fact more demand comes up for police and fire protection other social services and certainly education is an investment in the future.”

“It is really frightening quite honestly. Because what we are seeing is cuts, cuts to the bone and we are very concerned about teacher layoffs. And lets be honest about this. Kids are our future and so if you cut education you are really shortchanging the future of MA and the country. I'm very worried when I hear things like that; we have to come up with solutions.”

Stand for Children is committed to providing a quality education to every child, even during a recession.