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ISHPEMING -- Enough is enough:  it's a message educators around the state want to send to legislators in Lansing.

Marquette and Alger County school employees rallied for students in Ishpeming Monday afternoon.

Forty of these rallies were held across the state Monday in an effort to show lawmakers and Governor Granholm that communities are fed up with state funding cuts for education.

But Monday's rally wasn't just for teachers, it was also open to school support staff, parents, and community members.

Recent cuts in education funding by the state legislature have led to larger classroom sizes and is pushing more districts to cut programs like early childhood education.

State Representative Steve Lindberg is a proponent of public education and says no more cuts can be made without risking the future of students.

"I think our support for public education in the last couple of years has been waning, and we're going to talk today about how we can continue to support public education in these really hard times and in these changing times," says Lindberg.

"Everybody's in school for a purpose, and that purpose is to educate the young people in our community," says U.P. Education Association President Matt Edgell.  "A school's goal is not just to ensure that a kid has a good test score, a school's goal is to socialize a child and get them ready for the real world."

The Michigan Education Association hosted the statewide rallies.  More than 10,000 people will head to Lansing on June 24 for a statewide rally at the State Capitol.

At the end of Monday's rally, M.E.A. representatives passed out commitment cards for the attending school employees to sign up for that state rally.