When the first day of my junior year started at Constitution High this year, I walked in those doors braced for overcrowded classes, no college or extracurricular resources, and no nurses on duty. We, the immediate school community, knew about these huge losses, but did anyone else?

The Philadelphia School District has been hit with a lot of cuts because of lack of funding. Due to Constitution High losing $91,000 dollars in its operational budget, we have been forced to give up more resources including another teacher. This time, that teacher is Mr. Boyle, our art teacher. He hasn’t even left yet, but he’s been getting an outpouring of love and support from his heart-broken students. Mr. Boyle’s the one person in school whom I confided in because of the lack of a guidance counselor.

Without a counselor every day, I’m forced to embark on the college search with little to no help, and I have no one to talk to. Now the question is what am I, and all the other students who used Mr. Boyle as a source of support when the counselor wasn’t around, going to do when he leaves? What are we going to do without a counselor to help us with college admissions? Who will help us figure out what jobs we should apply for? Some may respond by saying “find a different teacher,” but that’s easier said than done. So many teachers have been laid off, and the few teachers left can’t assist every single student. Something must be done to prevent counselors and other instrumental staff members from being cut from our schools.

At my school, the counselor and nurse are there only a couple days a month. There are so many possibilities of what can go wrong without a counselor or nurse. If a student becomes depressed, confused, or suicidal, there’s no professional help available. At my former school, Bryant Elementary in West Philly, the lack of a nurse is under investigation because a 6th grader having asthma complications died on a day when the nurse was off duty. Last year, a student in my history class passed out on a day when the nurse wasn’t present. The teachers, not being medical professionals, had to wait for an ambulance to arrive before he could receive medical treatment. Luckily, he was fine. But what if a similar situation turns fatal?

The cuts are affecting us more as the school year progresses. I shouldn’t have to go to school with worry in my heart about what happens to a kid who faints, or not having enough resources to continue the college search process. My classmates and I should be able to walk into a building where we have a full-time counselor, a full-time nurse, a full-time art teacher, and a pathway to college. Without these necessities, I am being set up for failure.

We students have already been fighting and making noise by protesting and doing sit-ins, but we cannot do this alone. Politicians need to stop decreasing funding in public schools and find some money to put toward our education. The public can also contribute to making these politicians hear us out by calling their state representatives, writing letters to the local legislators, e-mailing the governor’s office, and even attending student-run protests. By voicing their support, the public can show that Philly students aren’t in this fight alone.


If public schools continue to receive inadequate funding, the future classes of high school graduates will be unprepared to obtain higher education and will leave school without access to career options.

We must do something to change the disastrous path public schools are going in. Something.