Syosset, NY – October 30, 2023 – Laura Harding, President of ERASE Racism, issued today a research report titled “Enough is Enough! 15 years of growing educational inequities on Long Island.” The report 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.

Recommendations contained in the report include, among others, the following:

• Give districts more funding to better support students with greater needs by updating the New York State Education Department’s funding formula.
• Include “reparatory aid” in the school funding formula to compensate communities that have been harmed by over a century of systemic racist housing policies.
• Address inequities caused by enrollment trends.

“The inequities revealed in this report require action by state and local officials,” said Laura Harding, President of ERASE Racism. “The number of Long Island students educated in intensely segregated school districts of students of color has grown dramatically, and those districts are not getting the funding that they need.”

A separate ERASE Racism report published earlier this year revealed that in 2021 Long Island had 11 intensely segregated school districts with 90% or more students of color: seven in Nassau County and four in Suffolk County. That report – titled “Empire State Inequities: A Decade of School Funding Disparity and Its Effects” – listed the 11 school districts as follows:

• Nassau County: Elmont Union Free School District; Freeport Union Free School District; Hempstead Union Free School District; Roosevelt Union Free School District; Uniondale Union Free School District; Valley Stream 30 Union Free School District, and Westbury Union Free School District.
• Suffolk County: Amityville Union Free School District; Brentwood Union Free School District; Central Islip Union Free School District, and Wyandanch Union Free School District.

The research in both reports was conducted by Olivia Ildefonso, Ph.D., data and analytics consultant to ERASE Racism. The reports were overseen by Laura Harding, President of ERASE Racism.

To speak with Laura Harding, contact Henry Miller – hmiller@highimpactpartnering.com or 917-921-8034.