The teachers, students and parents who marched through the State House last week are part of a national trend of activism aimed at reversing years of cuts to public education systems across the country.
While the most visible sign of the pro-public-education movement is the ongoing wave of teacher strikes that has hit states such as Oklahoma, West Virginia and Arizona, the movement in Massachusetts to increase funding for education is drawing from the same backlash against funding cuts and privatization efforts that many say have undermined public education in the United States.
“For us to be one of the wealthiest states in the country, there’s no excuse for students not getting the resources they need,” said Boston Teachers Union President Jessica Tang, who ticked off a list of unmet needs in schools across the commonwealth: arts and music instruction, libraries and librarians, nurses, counselors, special education staff.