Your donation will help us produce journalism like this. Please give today.

More than 40 education and community groups signed a full-page ad that ran in today’s Los Angeles Times, urging the LA Unified school board to provide more support for high needs students in the up-coming budget.

The ad appears a day before a board meeting when issues of the budget will be a large part of the conversation.

In “An Open Letter to the LAUSD School Board,” the groups who form the coalition known as CLASS – Communities for Los Angeles School Success — call on Superintendent John Deasy and board members to honor the spirit of the state’s new funding mechanism to spend more on students who need it most — English learners, foster youth and students from low-income families.

“As you know,” the ad says, “this year’s budget will set the course for years to come. The community is watching to ensure you support student success first, and we are counting on you to do the right thing.”

Ryan Smith, ‎Director of Education Programs and Policy at the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, the coalition organizer, said the ad was meant to push members to increase funding and build public support for the effort.

Smith said he did not know how much the full-color ad cost.