I'm getting this error whenever I attempt to declare a class:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE, expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or
T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or '}' in /home3/foundloc/public_html/booka/page2.php
on line 7 (line 7 is the class declaration by the way).

Here's the incredibly simple class I am attempting to declare:

Class abc
{

$a = “Hello!”;

} 

Is there some setting on PHP that i need to turn on? I feel like this is one of those 'did you check if the TV is plugged in' type of issues....