Back-to-school season must remind us how we invest in one another.

Back-to-school season comes with a sense of possibility because public schools are one of the places where we invest in one another, regardless of what resources any individual family has available. That shared investment is at the heart of AQE’s new report, What Students and Families Lose When School Districts Face Budget Pressure, released earlier this week to look at how financial pressures across New York shape what students and families can count on once this new school year begins.

The effects of those pressures can be deeply personal. A student notices when an adult they trust is no longer there, and a family feels the difference when an after-school program their child counted on disappears. Those losses change what students and families can rely on from their school community, and that matters to all of us because public schools are part of how communities create support and possibility beyond any one household.

Our report connects those everyday experiences to the budget choices behind them, showing how differences in local resources and state funding decisions can deepen existing inequities in what schools are able to provide. The sense of possibility that comes with a new school year can also extend to the future we build together, as communities across New York shape what we ask of our leaders and what we choose to invest in publicly. That must include making the case for progressive revenue that asks those with the greatest resources to contribute more, helping reduce the extent to which local wealth shapes educational opportunity.

We hope you’ll read the report and share it with people in your life.

In solidarity,

Marina Marcou-O'Malley and Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari
Co-Executive Directors, Alliance for Quality Education

Early bird registration is open for the Diapers to Diplomas: Reimagining the Continuum of Learning, Care and Opportunity conference on October 15 and 16 in New York City.