"This is not a game," Nutter said Thursday in an interview from Chicago, where he was attending a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting.
"Kindergarten, from my perspective, is the fundamental element of any well-functioning school system," said Nutter, who plans to visit Harrisburg on Monday to talk city finances with legislators.
Corbett, in his budget address last month, proposed slashing basic education aid by $1.2 billion as part of his effort to offset the state government's $4 billion deficit.
"This is a difficult, difficult budget, and recovery is never painless," Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley said of the Philadelphia school cuts. "He doesn't like this budget, but it has to be done. We can't continue to tax and spend our way to prosperity."
School districts around the state have responded by canceling music and art programs or considering wage freezes and teacher layoffs. Some legislators said Philadelphia schools, too, must make tough choices.
Sen. Jake Corman (R., Centre), chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, said he was sympathetic to the schools' plight but thought the district, like others, could have prepared better for the day when federal stimulus money dried up.
"All school districts were shielded from the recession because of stimulus funding," Corman said. "Philadelphia does pretty well, and it has gotten significantly more than just what the funding formula allowed, because of the clout it had in Harrisburg."
His use of the past tense was telling. Elections, retirements, and prosecutions have stripped the city of some of its most influential voices in the Capitol.
