I had the privilege to be a part of an internship this summer working at the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry of Pennsylvania. Before people run away thinking that this article is going to be heavy on religion, I can assure you, although there will be a mention of religion here and there, this article is more a reflection on what I observed while spending time in the capital of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg on certain days. My internship focused mostly around talking to the different synods of the ELCA in Pennsylvania and informing them on the situation of educational funding being given to public schools. It also involved attending rallies and listening to different groups argue and lobby for more funding for schooling.

The Lutheran Advocacy Ministry of Pennsylvania helped found the Campaign for Fair Education, an organization whose goal it is to keep putting pressure on the Pennsylvania lawmakers to first create a fair funding budget which they were successful in doing. Now they are making sure there is enough money being put into the budget to keep it healthy and sustained. And that is where my internship began. As the intern for LAMPA, I was tasked with talking to fellow Lutherans at their synod assemblies. I also carried with me letters which I tried to get people to sign. It was a form letter, but the gist was, the people whom signed them were willing to take a stand on pressuring the PA lawmakers to make a change. I would then take the letters to those people’s local lawmakers. However, the other side of my internship was attending rallies — ones that included a variety of people and groups whom were and continue to lobby and visit their lawmakers to try to move change on that front.

Listening to all the people at these rallies was truly a powerful experience, but none hit me as hard as one high school female student who was talking about her aspirations after she finishes high school. She wants to be an electrical engineer. However, what she described her classroom situation as, left me speechless, and disappointed. Her classes do not have textbooks, in fact, not even the teacher has one. They rely on handouts from a binder, and the students do not even have copies of those handouts. How can this girl expect to get the education necessary to follow her dreams? The truth is she cannot. I can guarantee that there are many other stories out there just like hers. It truly is unfortunate, when you also start to realize that politics have a lot of power when it comes to funding education.

For the record, according to the Campaign for Fair Education, it took nine months for the PA state budget to pass last year. What a lot of people were not necessarily aware of, was that in order to keep schools open until June of last school year, schools had to take out insanely large loans with high interest rates. Fast forward to this year’s budget. Granted, it was passed in a reasonable amount of time, but the Campaign for Fair Education wanted 400,000,000 dollars pumped into the new budget, in reality the formula only received half of that amount. The 200,000,000 or thereabouts will not be seen by the students or teachers. Most of that money will go to pay off the interest rates. The biggest fear of all, however, is that turning to the future next year’s budget is already leaving schools in a tough position. The reality is schools are being forced to closed; only time will tell if more are forced to follow suite.

My internship taught me a lot. I was able to interact and meet some incredible people. At the same time, I was able to learn some about how the politics play a key role in education. I look forward to taking what I have learned and being able to apply it to my major.