Whether in times of budget surplus or budget deficit, educational equity requires allocating public resources to support learning and thriving for every young person based on need and on what scientific findings have shown about how youth learn and develop. Political, economic, and social circumstances vary across states, but brains work the same everywhere. Even considering specific contextual differences, state investments in public education must come with clearer support for effective practices. It is just as important for political leaders - whether in New York, Georgia, or elsewhere - to have the knowledge and courage to articulate what practices need to stop because they are at odds with science and evidence. In that spirit, we write today to give recent examples of equity-focused, science-informed approaches to policy and practice by close partners in two very different places: Albany, New York and Gwinnett County, Georgia.

In New York, there is interest among state and community leaders and money in the state budget to advance greater educational “resource equity” and ensure that under-resourced schools and communities have what they need. In Georgia, a surplus in the state budget has been coupled with a very different approach: rather than invest the funds in schools, the state is issuing tax refunds of $250-500 per household and the Governor is expected to sign a bill that would mandate annual active shooter training in schools and create an “anti-gang license endorsement” for teachers and certified personnel.

Over the last two decades, in Albany and across the state, the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) has been fighting for high quality public education for New Yorkers. A good portion of their work has focused on the “Foundation Aid Formula,” a statewide system of funding for schools that was enacted in 2007 to distribute school aid equitably across the state, according to student needs and available resources. With full funding of the formula finally arriving with the FY24 budget, AQE and State Senator Lea Webb recently organized a panel to discuss the future of the Foundation Aid Formula and how to more effectively allocate public funds to ensure a robust and equitable education for underserved students.

For the discussion, OI’s Winsome Waite joined a diverse group that included State Senator Robert Jackson, New York State Education Department (NYSED) Commissioner Betty Rosa, Sean Giambattista, Director of State Aid at NYSED, Kaliris Salas-Ramirez, neuroscientist at CUNY School of Medicine, and Jasmine Gripper, executive director of AQE. The panel discussed chronic inequities in New York’s public education system, the persistence of deep poverty, and various related challenges.

Winsome focused on a more holistic approach to learning, with particular emphasis on investments in adolescent-aged youth and practices and policies aligned with science of learning principles. Science has established that a dynamic interplay between brain development, positive relationships, and supportive environments fosters learning. Because the middle-school and high-school years are key developmental periods, it is particularly important for our schools to engage these learners in high-order academic and social-emotional learning and provide experiences that build strong peer relationships with support from adults. There are many “strategies” and “programs” that meet this criterion, and plenty of good reasons to replace outdated and unimpactful approaches.

The understanding that some investments of public funds are actually counterproductive also informed OI’s recent participation on a multidisciplinary panel in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Guy Johnson joined the Hon. LeRoy Burke III (Ret.), senior judge for the Chatham County juvenile court, Pamela Perkins Carn from the Ending Mass Incarceration Georgia Network (EMI-GA) coalition, and parent advocate Bisi Jackson for a conversation about the “out-of-school-to-prison” pipeline. The talk was hosted by The Gwinnett Parent Coalition to Dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline (Gwinnett SToPP) as part of its annual “Legislative Advocacy Day,” and included reflections from the panel about how Georgia’s recent efforts around “school safety” are similar to legislative efforts in other states. Gwinnett SToPP was formed in 2007 to lead a parent-driven, community-centered partnership approach to dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline in Gwinnett County. The mission of Gwinnett SToPP is to build and strengthen relationships with the community in two ways: parent/community advocacy training and policy-change facilitation.

Against this backdrop, the panel in Georgia talked about how stressful school climates, traumatic experiences, and exclusionary school discipline practices contradict what science of learning principles show are the necessary conditions for success: supportive learning environments where students feel a sense of belonging. Investments in punitive practices and programs that isolate students - e.g, out-of-school suspensions and academic remediation that does not address current grade-level content - are contrary to scientific findings about learning and development and have a proven track record of simply not being effective.

By now, we certainly know what does not work for children. Productive investments are those that ensure greater access and support for every learner and help to accelerate learning in safe and supportive environments. They provide a greater number of students with more rigorous courses, more high-dosage, high-quality grade-level tutoring, mentorships, work-based learning experiences, and after-school activities rooted in experiential learning. These kinds of investments support students broadly in their development and their ability to learn and thrive.

At this point the alternatives are, honestly, perverse: wastefully pouring public money into fundamentally regressive practices or standing by and remarking upon inequities without taking meaningful action. This is why we applaud the efforts of AQE and Gwinnett SToPP to advance equity-focused, multi-disciplinary conversations about how we should be investing public funds to support the “whole child.” In very different settings, they have been working on issues of education equity for decades, using community organizing and parent and community empowerment to help inform and advance changes in policies and practices.

Moving forward means demanding, as our partners do, that our educational and policy leaders articulate the core elements of an equitable approach to public education, in terms of both policies and practices. The responsible and effective use of public funds requires putting equity at the center and proceeding from scientific findings about how children develop and learn.