Dear President,

My name is TaiAyanna and I currently reside and go to school in Philadelphia. How do you feel about the ongoing problems in the United States? There may be many problems going on in the US, but as a student, I’m more focused on budget cuts. I don’t like the idea of knowing that cuts are being made to not only one school, but multiple schools. Budget cuts can affect many children, cause problems and transmute minors/schools future. As a student, I want to work on ceasing this problem from going on any further. I know that you, as the president, can help with making this happen.

Let me tell you about when my middle school went through Budget Cuts. At the time I was only eleven years old in the sixth grade. I went to Grover Washington Jr. Middle School. On the news I overheard them say, “Budget Cuts, many schools are in danger of shutting down.” My teachers and principal heard that we were one of the schools on the list to go through ‘The Cuts’. We had many protests to save our school, and the classes that came with, such as; gym, music, art and sports. Before we heard of the bad news, our school started off with our normal classes, math, reading, science and history. We also had extra curriculum classes, gym, after school programs/sports, art, esol, counseling and etc. After the news, when budget cuts came around they tried to shut down all extra curriculum programs, fire a few teachers including the nurse and maybe even shut down the school. Budget cuts are deleterious to schools, and can get in the way of learning. This is one reason why you as the next president should help end the problem with school Budget Cuts.

Picture this, you go to a school and you hear that they cut your favorite program or art class. How would you feel? Well if this happened to me, I would feel sad by the lost of something that had an impact on me. Imagine they fired your favorite teacher, or a even a counselor that you was most comfortable communicating with, no more counselors, and no more twenty kids to a classroom. Imagine if they even fired the school's nurse. What if you got sick or hurt? You wouldn’t have a nurse. Why? You wouldn’t have a nurse because he/she was fired because of the school budget cuts. If the government or even the president doesn’t work on the budget, one day students might be stuck with just the basics. By basics I mean, math, reading, science and maybe even social studies. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing, but sometimes these extra classes boost our confidence or even help us better our education. Sometimes these “extra classes” help us with our future careers. Does the government think about that?

How do I feel about Budget Cuts? I’ve been a Philadelphia student my whole life so I’ve been through budget cuts two years straight. Each year a different school or the same school from the year prior would go out and protest before and after school because of two reasons; their school being shut down or cuts being made to the school. You would be shocked to see how many people actually went out to support the schools with their protest. There would be students, parents, cars honking, outsiders and even city workers. They would all hold up signs reading, “Save OUR School.” Cars would drive past and honk, people would shout, trash trucks and firetrucks would have stickers on their trucks. You wouldn’t think that budget cuts is a major situation, but seeing how many people were out there, really was outstanding.

With budget cuts closing our schools down it could lead to major problems outside of school as well. Minors will not be able to go to school, with that being said, that limits their options to being in the streets or chances of going to jail. For instance, on the news today you see teenagers being murdered, or committing a crime that sometimes leads to them going to jail. By schools being shut down you can stop kids from having a decent career to working for minimum wage. Also, some minors don't have stable families that they can count on or communicate with for any guidance or reasoning. Some kids look up to teachers and counselors as role models for the right guidance to help keep them on track, or even for support with life problems or educational purposes.

To sum up my thoughts, I feel as though, with you being the next president you have the power to resolve this current issue. This issue not only impacts teachers and students currently; but also may impact the future teachers and students as well. I, as a student, wouldn’t like to see any more cuts or changes being made to schools unless it’s a positive change. I don’t like the fact that Budget Cuts undermine my education. As you can see, this is a very major problem to the Philadelphia School District. As president, you can downsize other government programs to save most important ones. With your help to this current situation, it can lead to better chances of teens going to college, brighter futures with higher paying jobs and healthier expectations.