MERCER COUNTY — A music teacher for 12 years, Michalee Christy is passionate about sharing her talent and helping young people discover their own.

Her career and her family’s livelihood was put in jeopardy this spring as school administrators at Mercer worked to close a budget gap due to cuts in state funding.

“You can imagine my shock when I held a furlough notice in my hands,” she said of the cold, rainy day she and 21 other teachers were told they might not have jobs the next school year. “I turned to my husband and said ‘What are we going to do?’”

Christy teared up as she shared her story Saturday at the “We Are One” rally on the Mercer County Courthouse lawn.

They could’ve lost their house, their insurance and the ability pay for their daughter’s expensive asthma medication. And no other school would hire a music teacher with a master’s degree while they were laying off their own, Christy said.

“It was a really scary thought,” she said.

But the teachers’ union agreed to a one-year pay freeze and Christy hustled and got certified to also teach English as positions went unfilled and class sizes bumped up. Now, she sees 320 kids a day overseeing three choirs and four language arts classes.

“It’s OK. I’m a good teacher. I can handle it. But why does it have to come to this?” she asked the crowd of supporters.

“We need to stick together. We need to have our voices heard,” Christy said.

Rally organizer Judy Hines, also a retired teacher, asked where America would be without unions, noting that generations ago mill workers organized to ensure better lives for themselves and their children.

“Union means united. And we all know ‘united we stand, divided we fall,’” said Sharpsville teacher Tina Babnis.

Sharon City School District Superintendent John Sarandrea said his district chose to take the “poison” of larger class sizes rather than furlough teachers, cut programs or enact pay-to-play activities.

“It’s not what’s best for children,” Sarandrea said of the average kindergarten class size of 29 in the district’s three elementary schools.

Sarandrea noted the backdrop of the old county jail with razor wire atop the walls as he spoke.

He said Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett would rather invest in prisons than schools and said officials in California look at the third grade literacy rate when building new jails as a predictor of future occupancy.

State Rep. Mark Longietti, whose mother was an elementary school teacher in Sharpsville, also  spoke about the importance of education to the nation’s future.

“The middle class built this country and public school teachers expand the middle class,” Longietti said.

He said sometimes all it takes is one special teacher to have a profound affect on a student and fears that could be damaged as Corbett’s budget cuts mean fewer teachers have jobs.

“It breaks my heart when I see school districts being forced to lay off teachers and not fill positions,” he said.

Longietti said Corbett has cut $1 billion in public education funding - shifting the burden to local taxes - while creating tax credit programs that funnel public money into private and charter schools. And those cuts have hit the poorest districts hardest, he said.

According to Longietti, due to Corbett’s cuts: 51 percent of school districts have increased class sizes; 43 percent have reduced course offerings; 32 percent have reduced tutoring programs; 21 percent have eliminated summer school; 40 percent put off buying textbooks; and 43 percent reduced student field trips to save money.

“We need to shed a light on what’s happening. We need to tell the world that our children need our investment and our future needs our kids,” Longietti said.

Democrat candidate for U.S. Representative for the 3rd District Missa Eaton said she is the daughter of a union bus driver and attended public schools all the way through college.

“I’m proud of that,” Eaton said. “What I see right now is that opportunity dwindling.”

She said the “dirty little secret” of the voucher system Corbett is pushing is that private and charter schools will be able to turn down students, which public schools can’t.

Instead of redirecting tax money toward privatizing schools, Eaton said “how about just putting some money into the schools that are there already?”

Pennsylvania State Education Association President Mike Crossly said Pennsylvania was 7th in job creation when Corbett took office and now is ranked 43rd.

“He is destroying this economy” and has made public education “enemy number one,” Crossey said. “He wants to outsource public education to his friends in voucher schools and for-profit private schools … It’s wrong.”

Crossey also targeted presidential and vice presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, saying they would eliminate collective bargaining to bolster the bank accounts of corporations.

Eaton said her opponent U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd District, has sponsored a bill to give federal tax credits to people who send their children to private school.

Former U.S. Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper talked about the importance of education and affordable healthcare.

“What I need as a business owner is educated students who’re going to become good workers … (and) health insurance I can afford for my employees,” she said.

Folk singer Anne Feeney, who played several songs at the event, said the country is on the brink of class warfare.

People talking about privatizing social security, for example, think the times of old people sitting on the corner selling apples an pencils was quaint, Feeney said.

“I don’t think I’m ready to go back there,” she said.

There’s a war on every public aspect of the system, she said, and it’s being waged on the backs of the workers.

“In the U.S., being flexible means learning how to bend over backwards, stand on your head and kiss your boss’ butt at the same time,” Feeney said.

And just voting isn’t enough to change things. She said people need to get their communities organized and act.