Hundreds gathered in Annapolis Thursday night to rally for help to fix the $130 million budget gap facing Baltimore City schools. From students and teachers to parents, administrators and lawmakers, everyone had the same concern, Baltimore's future.
"Our education should be valued just as much as a county kid, a private school kid," said student Jonathan Gray.
Hundreds of others feel the same way.
"If they take the funding out of all these after school programs, where are these students going to go? Into crime, a life of selling drugs?" Christopher Hopkins said.
Parents, many of whom were bussed up to Annapolis Thursday, worry about what doing more with less will mean for their kids.
"They're talking about cutting over a 1,000 teachers. The class sizes are already pretty large, some schools need more teachers as it is and these kids deserve more," Kelly Navas-Migueloa, said.
City schools CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises continues to tout transparency and is also looking for real solutions.
"We didn't just come out and say we had a gap we have data to back it up and so now we want the back up that actually yields tangible support to fill this budget gap," she said.
Thursday's rally was full of state and local lawmakers ready to help. Several members of Baltimore's City Council was in attendance. Most notably, Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh who was passionate about fixing the budget gap.
"I will not let our school system down. The investment in our young people is the greatest investment that we can make of all," said Pugh.
The budget shortfall could mean the layoff of up to a 1,000 workers but Pugh said in her remarks at the rally that an announcement from the city is expected on Monday which is expected to help fix this budget deficit for Baltimore City schools.
