While the latest New York state budget increases education funding by $1 billion, advocacy groups are criticizing a failure to adequately ensure equitable education funding across all school districts.

After David Hogg lived through the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 students and teachers were killed and dozens more injured, he and other survivors turned the tragedy into a platform to advocate for gun control and gun safety — and immediately became targets on social media and in the news. Some of the politicians and pundits who joined and amplified the unfounded rhetoric against those students are the very pols and pundits that, this week, encouraged and defended a group of Catholic school students from Kentucky who either a) didn't handle a bad situation well or b) were mocking and disrespectful of Native Americans participating in the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington — characterizing those who cried racism and privilege in the news and on social media as malicious, dishonest and bent on "destroying" innocent youths. Hogg pointed out the double standard to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday.

A Senate Democrat has introduced legislation that would move the state closer to guaranteeing free pre-K and college education for New Yorkers.

The state comptroller has announced that his auditors have found $11.7 million more in inappropriate payments made to private preschool special education providers in New York, continuing a statewide investigation that has uncovered close to $100 million in misspent taxpayers funds resulting from fraud and mismanagement over the last decade — funding that was meant to support 3- and 4-year-olds with special needs.

The nearly 2.7 million students in New York State public and charter schools were collectively involved in more than 32,000 violent and disruptive incidents in the 2017-18 school year — including assaults, bomb threats and sexual offenses — according to a report released this month by the state comptroller.

New York students in middle and high school would be required to receive an education on the meaning of racist and hateful symbolism if a new bill passes when lawmakers return to Albany in January.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivered his tenth State of the State address, entitled “Making Progress Happen,” in Albany on Wednesday as state lawmakers returned to the capital for the beginning of the 2020 legislative session.

State lawmakers have announced they will seek input regarding billions of dollars in state education funding and how is it distributed across public school districts.

Early next month, New York school districts will be permitted to install stop-arm cameras on school buses in order to catch drivers who illegally pass stopped buses and endanger the lives of New York students.