At West Catholic High this morning, the student body took to the streets en masse to once again express their anger over the plan to close the legendary school and disperse the student body to designated regional schools.
Many of them are looking at the specter of enrolling in a charter or regular public school.
"If I have to finish in a public school, I think I would just be miserable for my entire senior year and that's not what I want at all," junior Ayana McNeil said.
Some of the Catholic school parents are so upset they're talking public schools as a protest against the archdiocese.
"If everybody was smart they'd get all their kids out of these Catholic schools and send them all to public schools," parent Dom Buccieri said.
Nearly 20,000 Catholic school students in Philadelphia will be affected by the mass closings or mergers.
Dr. Leroy Nunery, the interim Public School Superintendent, says it'll take some time to determine the impact on his school system.
"It's hard to project exactly how many students from parochial schools will leave their system altogether and how many will come to us or how many will go to private schools," Nunery said.
No matter how many Catholic transfers ultimately come to the Philadelphia public schools next fall, this already cash strapped system will not get any additional funding from the city or the state.
"We expect that enrollment would go up at least for certain schools or in certain areas. It's hard to calculate what the true financial impact is going to be," Nunery said.
The Philadelphia School District has already, through layoffs and program cuts, slashed its budget by $680-million. Sources say at least $30-million more in cuts are on the horizon.
