LITTLE VILLAGE — For 37 eighth graders at Saucedo Scholastic Academy this spring's trip to Washington, D.C. was supposed to be their last chance to spend time together before scattering to different high schools around the city.
That was before deep funding cuts tore a hole in the field trip budget of the school at 2850 W 24th Blvd.
Now students and teachers are looking for outside help to send them to the capital, in the form of a GoFundMe page.
Before this year, the school was able to reserve two buses for each classroom, available any time teachers wanted to show their students the world beyond the Southwest Side, according to special education teacher Sarah Chambers.
"Recently the [Board of Education] has been making massive cuts and freezing funds all over the city, so more and more we've seen our kids fundraising themselves," Chambers said.
And at schools like Saucedo, where 95 percent of students live below the poverty line, it's not easy for pre-teens to raise money on their own.
"A lot of these kids have parents who are working nights, or working multiple jobs just to keep them in school," Chambers said. "Some of them have never even left their neighborhoods, which is why we want to bring them to Washington."
As of early Tuesday morning, the page had raised more than $1,800 toward its goal of $2,500.
Pleads the GoFundMe page: "If you can donate any amount of money, it would be greatly appreciated. Our students are very excited to go on this trip and their hearts would be crushed if they can't go."
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