California must fund support systems for educational equity

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OPINION—California does not have to guess what many students need to stay engaged and succeed.

Across our schools, students are still navigating absenteeism, academic recovery, mental health pressures, family responsibilities and financial stress. For many Black students, those challenges are compounded by inequities that have existed for generations. If California is serious about educational equity, it must continue funding the support systems that help students stay connected to school and on track for the future.

That is why continued state support for the Student Success Coach Learning Network matters.

At Improve Your Tomorrow, we work every day with young men of color in Sacramento and across California who are full of promise, talent and determination. We also see how easy it is for students to feel disconnected when the pressures they carry are met with too little support.

Students do not need more rhetoric about opportunity. They need trusted adults who show up consistently, build relationships and help them move through challenges before those challenges become bigger setbacks.

We know this approach works.

Students are more likely to stay engaged when someone notices their absence, checks in early and helps them reconnect. They are more likely to keep believing in themselves when they have adults in their corner who expect them to succeed and help move them forward.

That support is especially powerful when it comes from near-peer tutors, mentors and coaches who reflect the backgrounds and lived experiences of the students they serve.

Too often, conversations about student success remain abstract. Policymakers debate programs, line items and priorities, but on the ground the reality is simple. Students need people. They need consistency. They need guidance, mentorship and encouragement. They need support systems strong enough to help them through setbacks and steady enough to build trust over time.

The Student Success Coach Learning Network provides exactly that kind of relationship-based support in schools. Made possible in part by state funding, the network helps students stay connected to school, access help earlier and build the confidence they need to keep moving forward.

Educators, families and community-based organizations understand that students are more likely to thrive when they have support services in school and trusted adults who can help them navigate what stands in their way.

For Black students and other students of color, that support is not extra. It is essential.

California cannot say it cares about closing opportunity gaps while stepping back from the very strategies that help close them. It cannot say it values student well-being while failing to invest in programs that strengthen relationships, improve engagement and create the conditions for success.

And it cannot expect students to carry growing challenges on their own while still producing the outcomes we all want to see.

In Sacramento, we see every day what is possible when students are fully seen, supported and invested in. We also know what is at stake when those supports are treated as optional. Our students deserve schools where they are not overlooked, underestimated or left to navigate challenges alone. They deserve school communities that do more than hope they succeed. They deserve school communities designed to support their success.

Unfortunately, the Student Success Coach Learning Network may cease to exist without action from the Legislature and the Governor. That would be a step in the wrong direction for students, schools and the state.

California should continue funding this network in the 2026-27 state budget. Students are ready to rise. With trusted adults in their corner and the right support around them, they will.

Ray Green is executive director of Improve Your Tomorrow’s (IYT) Sacramento region. IYT is a national organization that supports young men of color on their path to and through college.