Florence, April 16, 2009 - Students marched down Highway 101 in Florence to raise awareness in the community about the dire finances in Florence schools. Chanting "The Next Generation Needs an Education!" and "We Want Teachers!," students hope that their orderly walk will help garner support to pass a much-needed levy that will be presented to voters in May.

Lack of funding in the Siuslaw School District has become a serious problem, with cut after cut of many essential classes, teachers, and programs. Students are seeing cuts not only in classes critical for their chosen future careers, such as Math, Science, and Auto Shop, but also in Sports, Forensics, Music, and many other programs important for a quality education.