This May 1976 photograph captures a Carnival Day that students at Junior High School 65 (JHS 65) organized to raise funds for school supplies and physical education equipment. The festive fundraiser, which brought together students, teachers, and families in the Lower East Side and Chinatown community, was one of many collective actions that made it possible for the school to survive successive waves of budget cuts during the worst financial crisis in New York City’s history.

The 1975–76 school year was unlike any other, as New York City teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Its inability to repay loans led to the creation of an Emergency Financial Control Board, which imposed sweeping austerity measures across all public services—including education. Public schools absorbed a disproportionately large share of the cuts: 25.4% of the total, or $74 million. This resulted in the layoff of 21,000 employees—more than half of them teachers—and deep reductions to afterschool programs, music, art, special education, physical education, counseling, and library services. Affecting more than 1.1 million students, these cuts came at a time when the city’s education system was already under pressure to serve growing numbers of children from low-income and recent immigrant families. 

From the very beginning and at every step along the way, the community at JHS 65 found ways to support one another. When Title I funding for the school was slated to be cut in the summer of 1975, parents, teachers and the principal formed a coalition that successfully pressured the Board of Education to reverse the decision, preserving vital programs such as free breakfast, homework help, and reading support for the 1975-76 school year. That September, teachers began the school year with a five-day strike in protest of the layoffs, yet many continued to volunteer their time and talents to cover roles no longer staffed throughout the year. Parents stepped up to support school events, and students even played an active role in fundraising. Held at the end of a difficult year, Carnival Day at JHS 65 offered a brief moment of fun and respite that stands as a powerful example of how collective action sustained schools through this unprecedented crisis.