Hundreds of students from several different Boston Public Schools walked out of class Monday, hopped on public transportation and joined forces on Boston Common to march to the State House steps in protest of proposed cuts for next year's school budget.
Jamal Mohammad, a student at Josiah Quincy Upper School said, "We had to send a message, make it loud and clear that we can all unite and come together."
Boston School Superintendent Tommy Chang recently proposed cutting $20 million from the central office budget. He also proposed trimming $10 million to $12 million from the per-student funding formula, which affects the budgets of individual schools.
Jontae Mongo, a Brighton High School senior said, "It's not good, there's teachers in there sad about to lose their jobs."
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said that while he applauds the students standing up for their education, he doesn't think walking out of school is the right way to go about it, and he says there is a lot of misinformation as the budget process continues.
"It's not a $50 million dollar gap, and we're working on closing that gap and working on making sure that we try and eliminate the gap altogether," Walsh said.
Walsh said the gap was more like $30 million and it's shrinking, and that the budget has actually risen this year.
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State education commissioner Mitchell Chester said the district actually spends a relatively high amount per student, but is burdened by other costs.
"Boston has tremendous structural obligations, not least of all in their collective bargaining agreements, their aging facilities, over capacity of seats," Chester said.
But some at city hall say the district needs to figure out a way to balance the budget without short-changing these students.
Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson said: "Either we stand up for these young people or we walk away from our future and that's what all of them are saying to us."
Boston Public Schools presented the fiscal year 2017 budget to the school committee last month. Monday night at English High School will be the second of three public hearings on the budget.
The budget vote is scheduled for March 23rd.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
