To keep schools open, teachers go to work without pay.

• Position: Chester Upland School District, Pennsylvania - On the Line - Brief article

Teachers in Pennsylvania's Chester Upland School District are no strangers to the fight to save their schools. In November 2012, the school community held a candlelight vigil at a school board meeting about the district's dire financial situation, helping keep their schools open at the eleventh hour with money from the state. Pennsylvania ranks forty-fifth out of fifty states in funding for public schools.

This fall, there's another crisis, driven by more state funding cuts and charter schools that are sucking the district dry. Community members protested unfair state requirements that demand the cash-strapped district pay some $64 million to charter schools--more than it gets in state aid--to educate about half of Its 7,000 students. Pennsylvania ranks dead last in equity of school funding.

Parents celebrated when...