Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter speaks to members of the media during a Tuesday visit to Powel Elementary School in Philadelphia. The state's largest district, which serves about 203,000 students, is facing a record $629 million deficit.

PHILADELPHIA — At a time when the school year is supposed to be winding down, the education debate is heating up in Philadelphia, where the cash-strapped school district continues to be the subject of protests, lawsuits and debate since issuing the largest number of teacher layoff notices in a generation.

While a Tuesday court hearing on the layoffs was postponed, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter visited several schools to assess planned cutbacks and drum up support for additional taxes to benefit the district. Even as he toured the buildings, hundreds of tax opponents protested at City Hall.

“There are no easy choices here,” Nutter said during his last school stop. “It's a choice between bad and worse. I get that. But the cost of not providing a high quality education is so much worse.”

The state's largest district, which serves about 203,000 traditional and charter school students, is facing a record $629 million deficit.

Tuesday's developments come a day after the state Supreme Court waded into the fight between the Philadelphia teachers union and the district, which issued more than 3,000 pink slips last week. About half went to teachers.

The union challenged the 1,500 teacher layoffs because the district exempted instructors who work in the superintendent's signature program to overhaul failing schools.

Ralph Teti, lawyer for the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, contends the district violated the union contract by ignoring seniority in issuing pink slips. About 200 exempted teachers have less seniority than other instructors who got layoff notices.

“We're not trying to block all the layoffs,” Teti said, though he noted that “nobody's happy to see positions lost.”