Making Good on California’s Promise to Our Students: Centering Racial Equity in the 2020 Budget
Our future will be defined by how we educate our children. This is our moment to ensure California’s budget reflects our values.
Making Good on California’s Promise to Our Students: Centering Racial Equity in the 2020 Budget offers recommendations and concrete examples for how California can ensure all students, regardless of race, have the opportunities to thrive during these unprecedented times.
In the past weeks we have seen the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impact communities of color. In addition, we have seen nation-wide protests in reaction to police and vigilante killings that are shedding light on the double pandemic facing our Black brothers and sisters. The partners that worked on this policy brief are dedicated to advancing the civil rights movement and stand in solidarity under the rallying cry of Black Lives Matter.
California has the opportunity to innovate, learn from these difficult times, and direct a powerful response that recognizes how the pandemic and structural racism disproportionately impact the educational, economic, and health outcomes of Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other people of color. As we work to rebuild and create stronger, more resilient communities, our state leaders must embrace racial equity and ensure systemic infrastructure investments in our K-12 public education and early care and education (ECE) systems.
We urge the administration and the Legislature to adopt the following recommendations in the State’s 2020-21 final budget:
- Support and Endorse California Schools and Communities First Initiative to Mitigate Education Budget Cuts
- Hold Local Control Funding Formula Supplemental and Concentration Funds Constant for Students Most Impacted by the Pandemic
- Funding to Leverage the Equity and Access Branch within the California Department of Education to Address the Needs of Students Hardest Hit by the Pandemic
- Utilize an Equity-Based Formula to Allocate Funds to Early Learners and K-12 Students Most Impacted by the Pandemic
- Engage Parents and Students in Distance Learning Best Practices
- And more
Let’s double down on the strategic investments we need to build a foundation for healthy, sustainable and successful educational outcomes for ALL our students, and especially for historically disadvantaged students.