NEW YORK – An Ed Trust–NY analysis of Governor Hochul’s 2023 State of the State proposal identified a number of critical investments that will help to support New York’s children and families beginning at birth through college and into the workforce.
This is a critical time for New York, as the state continues to rebuild its economy amid an ongoing and persistent pandemic while also bracing for a looming recession.
Now more than ever, it is imperative that state leaders prioritize equity and support families and communities who have historically been underserved by our education systems.
Among the promising proposals:
- Increase eligibility for child care assistance
- Simplify families’ access to child care assistance
- Support the child care workforce
- Partner with businesses to expand access to high-quality, affordable child care
- Make historic new investments in public education
- Establish high-impact tutoring programs across the atate to address learning loss
- Create new early college high school and P-TECH programs
- Create a robust high school-college-workforce pipeline
- Directly admit all New York students to their local community colleges
Read more about each of these proposals in our analysis.
Along with these promising proposals, there is still more work to be done to ensure all New Yorkers have access to the educational experiences that will allow them to ultimately earn a family-sustaining wage and engage in their communities.
As the legislative session continues, we urge lawmakers to consider making investments in the following areas to improve educational equity for all New Yorkers:
- Early Literacy: Thirty states have passed legislation aligned to the science of reading, a vast, interdisciplinary body of research about how children learn to read. New York does not have any state policies aligned with the science of reading and many schools are using non-evidence based instructional resources, which plays a part in the poor literacy outcomes we see across the state. State leaders must pass legislation that supports and incentivizes the use of evidence-based literacy instruction across the state to ensure more students are reading proficiently by 3rd grade.
- Teacher Diversity: New York State is home to one of the most diverse student populations in the country. Yet the makeup of the state’s teacher workforce falls far short in representing the rich racial/ethnic diversity of its students, leaving many students of color without access to teachers of the same race as them, despite research showing the positive impact of diverse teachers on all students. State leaders must provide additional support to schools to develop a diverse teacher pipeline and implement strategies that recruit, retain, and support diverse teachers across the state.
- Cradle to Career Data System: New York is in desperate need of a comprehensive system that connects statewide data from early childhood through K-12, postsecondary education, and the workforce. We support adoption of a P-20 data system that would help leaders answer policy challenges, target resources, and better support students on their educational journey. NYSED has also prioritized this in its upcoming information upgrades.
- Stronger Graduation Requirements: Ed Trust–NY supports policies that strengthen graduation requirements, including administration of all Regents exams, an end to state policy changes that make it easier for students to graduate, and increased data collection and transparency around Regents exam performance and postsecondary student success to determine how well graduates are faring in college and career.
- Expansion of the Empire State Tax Credit: New York is home to several communities with the highest rates of child poverty in the country. Nearly one in five children in New York live in poverty, and for children of color and those living in under-resourced communities, that rate shoots up to almost one in three children living in poverty. As the only state with a child tax credit to exclude children under age 4, this is the time to expand the Empire State Tax Credit to include children during the first three years of life, a time of critical brain growth and development when children are particularly vulnerable to the long-term impacts of poverty.
“The State of the State recognizes the many challenges New Yorkers are navigating in the face of an ongoing pandemic and looming recession,” said Dia Bryant, executive director of The Education Trust–New York. “As this budget season and legislative session progresses, we urge lawmakers to make a commitment to New York families by protecting the provisions that aim to interrupt cycles of poverty and supporting additional legislation that fosters more equity for all of our residents.”