If you survey a group of everyday people about the effects of government budget cuts, an overwhelming number of them will respond that the cuts have hurt schools and limited kids' opportunities to learn. The Huffington Post, as part of a series on the impact of austerity measures, asked its readers how budget cuts affected them and received an outpouring of personal stories from concerned teachers and parents. 

Of particular concern for teachers is rising class sizes and how that impedes their ability to give individual students the help they need. One geometry teacher wrote: "Meanwhile my geometry classes creep toward the infinite. Logic, constructions, and trigonometry don't get any easier with 35 to 42 kids in my class." 

Many parents wrote in to say the situations in their local public schools were so dire that they wanted to put their kids into private schools where they would have access to better educational resources, but that the costs of private school tuition were too great. As the Huffington Post points out, the comments about private schools act as "a reminder of what we might like for all students." 

The Huffington Post has pulled together a collection of the responses it received. The troubling personal stories are well worth a read, if only as a reminder of what we're fighting for when we advocate for a fair and equitably opportunity to learn for every child. You can check out the collection here.