Two students from Hillside Elementary School in Berlin are petitioning the state to restore funding to Berlin's schools.
In the past few years, the loss of school stabilization aid to property-poor towns has left a hole in Berlin's annual school budget of over $200,000.
When 5th graders Hannah Melendy and Aubrie Brochu learned about this, they wrote a letter to lawmakers about the consequences of defunding schools.
"The letter is telling the legislators that the country can be affected by this because all the children of today in just a few decades will run the government," Melendy says.
The students have collected hundreds of signatures from teachers, elementary and junior high students, and community members.
They plan to deliver the petition early next year.
The city of Berlin is working with attorneys and other towns to push for legislation next year that restores school stabilization money.
