After the School Reform Commission (SRC) abruptly dropped the School District of Philadelphia’s contract with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, rumors of a teachers’ strike began to circulate on social media. But it was students who walked out of the classroom on Oct. 8 in protest of the cuts to their teachers’ health benefits and the actions of the SRC.

A month before elections on Oct. 6, the SRC held a short, quietly announced vote without public comment to pull negotiations with one of the most prominent teachers’ unions in the city, instead exercising what Chairman Bill Green called “extremely broad powers” to dissolve the contract and cut millions from teachers’ health care benefits, requiring 15,000 educators and support staff to pay 10 to 13 percent of their plans, up to $200 per month beginning Dec. 15. Education advocates called the move a political “Hail Mary” just a month before the gubernatorial elections, and an effort to pit students and their families against teachers.

The Wednesday protest, which was shared under the hashtag #StudentsForTeachers, involved students from schools around the city, including Creative and Performing Arts High School (CAPA) and Science Leadership Academy, went to school without going to class, holding signs, playing music and chanting outside.

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“I’m out here to spread the word to help support our school. We are a community where if we don’t have an education, then we don’t have a future. And without our teachers getting their healthcare, they can’t do their jobs as good as they have been doing before,” Priscila Gonzalez, a sophomore student at CAPA, said.

“We want the SRC to know that what they did and how they went about it was wrong. It was unfair and caught a lot of teachers off guard. A lot of teachers in our school didn’t know about it until family members told them later,” said Cy Wolfe, a junior student at CAPA who organized their protest. “If nothing changes, we’ll be out here multiple times.”

 

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