Philadelphia teachers picket against proposed budget cuts

The teachers enlisted some parents and students for help on their picket line in the Mayfair neighborhood.  

Kindergarten teacher Gina Felice says cuts to early childhood programs, such as ending full-day kindergarten, would hurt student progress.

“Kindergarten is time when they grow and they learn,” said Felice. “They develop their social skills then they learn to read and write and do math. It’s a whole day experience because it is a whole lot of information and a whole lot of skills they accumulate and learn in one year.”

Parent Kim Faley is worried about state budget cuts.  “If they cut all this funding to school, and our kindergarten has to go to a half day it’s going to have a trickle down that is going to effect everybody,” she said.

Lawmakers in Harrisburg are proposing to scale back the cuts, but the teachers union says it will protest until all the cuts come off the table.