Slideshow: Fighting for Public Education Funding

The past few days have seen thousands of students, educators and parents at the Texas Capitol to protest the budget cuts they say will do long-term harm to Texas students. 

On Saturday, the grassroots organization Save Texas Schools held a rally it estimated was attended by 12,000 people. (Capitol police put that number at around 8,000.) On Monday, teachers were back at the Capitol again for the Texas American Federation of Teachers lobby day. 

Protesters urged lawmakers to tap the state's $9.4 billion Rainy Day Fund to help relieve the sting of cuts. They pressed Gov. Rick Perry to maximize the use of federal money — in particular, to sign the application for the $830 million that's sitting in the Education Jobs Fund. They also asked the Legislature to consider revenue-based solutions, including new taxes, to preserve funding for education — and to fix the structural deficit in the state's school finance system. 

Here are some images of the action from photographers Bob Daemmerich and Marjorie Kamys Cotera.