Back-to-school season brings both excitement and anxiety, but this year parents at my child’s school were asked to donate $350 per student—far more than in past years—to cover programs the district doesn’t fund, like specialty teachers, software, and field trips. While I support my school, the growing reliance on parent contributions highlights inequities: wealthier schools benefit while high-need schools fall further behind. Declining federal and state funding, especially recent cuts, worsens the gap.

Welcome to the September Dispatch! Thank you for being a part of our growing, powerful Moms Next Door program! What’s the Moms Next Door Dispatch? Each month, you’ll receive the Moms Next Door Dispatch (Scroll down!)—a monthly toolkit that will arrive in your inbox to provide you and your community with ideas on how to self-organize and take action; as well as to process and make sense of all that’s going on; AND also ways to remain calm, find joy in community, and recharge as we build a...

Why does it feel like it is so hard to afford a decent life? Not decadent, not luxurious, just decent. And why does it seem like it used to be easier to afford that decent life? There is a very straightforward explanation that answers both of these questions. An economist would say, it comes down to the ‘relative growth in prices and wages.’ So what does that mean? At the heart of the matter, the problem is that runaway price growth for the necessities has outpaced wage growth for all earners,...