Join this workshop to better understand how school funding works and how we can successfully advocate and organize for the sustainable funding all our students deserve.
The federal government has distributed almost $200 billion of much-needed relief funds to public education since the COVID-19 pandemic. While these Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds were a temporary solution, the needs they addressed are ongoing, caused by decades of systemic underfunding. This underfunding has hit Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and immigrant communities, as well as low income communities, the hardest.
Federal support for our public schools meant students and their families experienced many positive academic, social and emotional benefits. They also received direct benefits, from one-on-one tutoring, to free summer schools, to additional support personnel for students with disabilities and more.
But that federal support will come to an end very soon – September 30th, 2024.
As this funding-cliff approaches, it is important that we equip ourselves with the organizing knowledge and tools to effectively demand that our state and federal government provide the long-term, full funding our public schools so desperately need.