Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Lucy Addison Middle School teacher Bonnie Pritchett and Patrick Henry High School teaching aide Leona Miller hold signs Saturday.

James Spaulding, 6, holds a sign at Saturday's education rally. He attends Clearbrook Elementary School in Roanoke County.

Students in the dance group Divine Nature perform at a rally supporting an increase in Roanoke's meals tax to benefit education Saturday in downtown Roanoke.

Beckoned forward, students James Spaulding, 6, and Joel Kasongo, 7, walked shyly toward the microphone. They stood in the shadow of the statue honoring the late Martin Luther King Jr.

Spaulding spoke softly but carried a big poster. It read, "I am worth your 2 cents."

The education rally crowd cheered and the boys retreated to their mothers, Kathy Coats and Mary Jane Kasongo.

Most speakers were demonstrably less shy.

More than 250 people attended Saturday's Keep the Promise Rally for Education, held at the King memorial in downtown Roanoke.

Teachers, students, parents and politicians gathered to protest state budget cuts affecting education and to garner support for a 2 percent meals tax increase that could help narrow the budget gap threatening city schools.

The latest calculations put the budget shortfall at nearly $9 million, according to Superintendent Rita Bishop, who was part of Saturday's crowd.

Estimates suggest that raising the meals tax could reduce the gap by more than $4 million.

Many who spoke blasted state legislators and Gov. Bob McDonnell for budget cuts they say threaten the quality of education in city schools.

Others urged the Roanoke City Council to approve the 2 percent meals tax increase, which would expire in two years.

Bettina Mason, an English teacher at Patrick Henry High School, led chants of "Stand strong!" and coaxed the crowd to yell loudly enough "for the governor to hear you in Richmond."

Kelly Miller, co-president of the Roanoke Education Association, simultaneously called for a boycott of city restaurants whose owners oppose the meals tax increase and patronage of eateries willing to swallow the increase in the interests of education.

"We will go out of our way to support Roanoke city restaurants [that express acceptance of the tax increase]," said Miller, an instructional coach and mentor for teachers at Stonewall Jackson Middle School.

Coats, a teacher, said her son has some indications of autism and that inadequate state funding for public education could affect the significant progress he and other children have made.

"For class sizes to increase is going to be tremendously damaging to these children," Coats said.

Kasongo, a native of Rwanda, said one of her daughters, Ruth Kaytesi, attends the Roanoke Valley Governor's School and hopes to be a doctor. She said her daughter worries about the school's future.

Another of Kasongo's daughters, Esther Umuton, 13, a student at Lucy Addison Middle School, preceded her 7-year-old brother's spotlight moment with a brief speech to the crowd. She asked parents to imagine looking their children in the eye and saying, "Honey, I want you to have a mediocre education."

Several speakers gestured toward King's statue and said education is among the nation's civil rights, a right they said state funding reductions threaten to violate.

Community activist Jeff Artis said that inadequate funding is especially hurtful for children who are economically disadvantaged, regardless of race, and children who have disabilities.

At one point, 2-year-old Aumerie Zenquis wriggled away from her grandmother and stepped closer to Artis, who at 6 feet 5 inches tall, towered above her. He gestured toward the smiling child.

"This is why we need that 2 percent increase," Artis said.

To adjust to a multimillion-dollar budget gap, city schools might have to eliminate 147 full-time positions, close Round Hill Primary Montessori School and eliminate programs such as CITY School, chess and elementary Spanish.

Bishop said revenues from the meals tax could help keep the effects of potential staff and program cuts "much further away from students."

All seven members of the city council joined the rally.

Before the event, Councilmen Sherman Lea and Rupert Cutler said they believe their colleagues unanimously support the meals tax increase.

"The council speaks in one voice on this issue," Cutler said.

Both men acknowledged that the city faces dire budget struggles, too.

Asked whether the full sum of meals tax revenues would, in fact, end up dedicated to education, Cutler replied, "That is the way the resolution has been written."

He said Roanoke might also consider increasing its lodging tax to help narrow the city's own budget gap.

The city council has set a public hearing about the meals tax for April 5.