In a few short weeks, the New York State legislature will return to Albany to decide the state budget for the next year. New York currently owes public schools $3.8 billion. There is no greater budget priority for New York this year than ensuring that our schools get the funding they need.

We are ready for this fight, and we are ready to win. We cannot win alone, we're stronger together.

Here's how you can help organize your community. We put together a #FundNYSchoolsdigital toolkit with all the resources you need to be the champion our children need. Use this toolkit to help you set up a town hall, press conference, lobby your legislators and more.

This toolkit is designed for you— whether you're a student, teacher, elected official, or advocate. Click here to explore the resources.

We have a challenging year ahead of us in the fight for public schools. When students in Rochester return from winter break next week, students in over 100 classrooms — most of them elementary school students — their teacher will be gone and their class sizes will increase. That is because Rochester schools could no longer pay their teachers, and had to lay them off mid-year.

This is the real, terrible consequence of failing to fund our schools. And it isn't just Rochester at risk. Rochester is owed $86 million from the state, but in all, public schools in New York are owed $3.8 billion. Every school district that is owed money makes tough decisions every year about what their students will have to go without.

Use this toolkit to get involved and organize in your community!