It became dismal listening to the plaintive pleas Monday night of people speaking before the Richmond City Council. One by one, dozens of children, parents and teachers took the microphone to ask for more money for Richmond Public Schools.

Anyone tuning in during the middle of the three-hour session broadcast on public television would have thought they were watching a late-night commercial seeking money for Third World school projects for UNICEF or Save the Children.

The descriptions were shocking and heart-wrenching, telling of broken-down buildings with tiles falling from the ceilings, supplies for classrooms provided largely from the beneficence of dedicated, but underpaid teachers struggling to maintain their own households, who clean their own classrooms because the building’s sole janitor already has too much to do, and sometimes fending off bad behavior and violence from children seriously in need of services.

Then there were the youngsters — earnest, happy faces — who stepped up to the microphone and kindly asked, “More, please” for raises for teachers, for learning, for their future.

The stark and nagging question is this: In a capital city with a projected annual budget of more than $700 million, why are we turning our children into beggars?

Why are we turning our teachers into contestants for the old “Queen for a Day” TV show, with the worst hard-luck story becoming the “winner,” in this case, of more taxpayer dollars?

Has the city been so busy pumping millions into a new brewery project, an express bus line down Broad Street and talking about a new multimillion-dollar sports stadium that we have forgotten what’s really important — the children and their education?

We spend our money on the things we believe are important. In this situation, we have to question the priority of Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones and City Council, which voted for level funding for schools in the 2015-17 spending plan it approved last year. And Mayor Jones continues to stick by standstill school funding in his proposed budget amendments for 2016-17.

We also question the management — or seeming lack of it — in the Richmond schools. Superintendent Dana T. Bedden currently has an annual budget of $354 million, up $17 million from 2014-15. Shouldn’t there have been enough through the years for children to have decent and safe schoolhouses with adequate supplies and janitors, well-paid teachers and administrators who care?

The big question now is how do we fix this problem?

As City Council comes up with new funding streams for the schools, we call on Dr. Bedden and the School Board to closely examine the practices within the school system to determine where the money is going.

We also recommend that a forensic budget analysis be conducted to understand existing problems and discrepancies. Richmond school parents and the city’s taxpayers deserve an unvarnished picture and explanation of what is happening.

In a city that finds itself divided on so many issues, including race and class and trees and public statues, it seems like school funding is the one issue bringing us together.

The common ground is this: We all love our children, and we all want the best for them for the future. And the key to the future is a solid and quality education.

We all should be willing to fund that — no matter what else needs to be cut.

Photo by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Open High School students march toward City Hall Monday after a walkout in which they called for more money for city schools.