ERASE Racism’s new report “Enough is Enough! 15 years of growing educational inequities on Long Island”explores enrollment trends across public school districts on Long Island, related funding inequities, and the resulting and increasing opportunity gap. The findings are presented in charts and other visuals to spark public discussion of next steps.
The report’s findings include, among others, the following:
- Long Island is losing its students: In the past 15 years, the number of students enrolled in public schools declined from 465,000 in 2007 to 409,000 in 2022 – a loss of 12%.
- The size of intensely segregated districts is increasing. In those 15 years, the size of intensely segregated school districts – those that are 90% or more students of color – grew by 34%. Fifteen years ago, such intensely segregated school districts were 12% larger than all other districts; today they are 80% larger, on average.
- Students with greater needs are being concentrated in such intensely segregated districts. The number of students with greater needs is growing in nearly all school districts on Long Island. It is growing much faster, however, in these intensely segregated school districts.
- Funding inequities are growing. Intensely segregated districts, which have high concentrations of students with greater needs, are struggling to provide necessary support services due to inequitable funding. If schools were funded equitably, such intensely segregated districts would have received $26,000 more per student in 2021.
- Growing funding inequities are increasing the opportunity gap. In the past decade, the opportunity gap has more than doubled to 44 percentage points.
