School Budget Issues & The School Funding Formula
Many in our District have been reaching out to me about the budget issues facing our schools, and our community.
As you are probably aware, deficiencies in the school funding formula have affected our school district for many decades, and remedying them are a top priority for me. More recently, the injection of federal funds during COVID-19 helped our towns weather shortfalls, but with the disappearance of that extra support, the high inflation we have experienced the past few years, and the ongoing effects of the pandemic on our schoolchildren, we are faced with dire choices.
I am – and have been – the House champion on this issue.
First and foremost, I filed Amendment #390 in the FY25 budget to fully fund the regional transportation line item. That amendment did not pass, and I immediately reached out to Senators Ed Kennedy and John Cronin (with whom I share five regional schools) to ask them to file this on the Senate side: A second bite at the apple, if you will.
Working with the Regional Schools Caucus, I also helped plan and support other amendments that would directly benefit our schools.
I was also proud to support the increase in per-student contributions from $30 per student to $104 per student.
The FY25 House budget also funds the Special Education Circuit Breaker program at $492.7M, which, in combination with the $74M appropriation we included in the FY23 closeout supp budget, is estimated to fully reimburse districts for eligible special education instruction and out of district transportation costs.
The FY25 House Budget also funds regional transportation reimbursements at $99.4M, which, according to DESE, will fund reimbursements at 80% of projected entitlement.
However, amendments, like the ones in the FY25 budget, would only be an ad hoc fix, meaning any additional monies are for one budget cycle only: We need a structural, long-term solution. To that end, I also filed HB3756, which would close the loophole through which the state consistently under-appropriates funds for regional school transportation reimbursement. More generally, I believe the funding formula needs to be adjusted so that regional schools receive more equitable support from the State.
This has been a priority of mine since taking office, and I am proud to be leading the effort to bring together a variety of stakeholders this summer to determine what that structural fix is. These stakeholders include the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE); the MA Teachers Association (MTA); the MA Association of Superintendents; the MA Association of School Committees; our local Select Boards, Finance Committees, School Committees, and Superintendents; and my colleagues in the House and the Senate.
Additionally, I am working with several of my colleagues to bring together all 200+ “minimum aid” districts so that we can collaborate on solutions that directly benefit schools with this designation.
Our current budget situation is a combination of many factors, including the fact that this issue is a long-standing one: In my fifteen months in office, I have worked tirelessly to get educated on the many facets of it and build coalitions and proposal solutions that work to rectifying them. I share your desire to rectify the school budget issues and appreciate your partnership in bringing about necessary changes.
For ways that you can help, if you are interested: I recommend specifically asking Senators Kennedy and Cronin to support an amendment for additional funding for regional transportation. I have sent both the language I used in the House amendment and also the exact number I obtained from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for the cost of regional transportation. As a note, they are both also looped into the summer meetings I am coordinating and they are both strong partners in this effort.
Please spread the word about the work being done in this area: I am in close contact with all of the Towns' leadership and they are aware of what I have been advancing up to this point, as well as my plan for the summer meetings, which has 100% support from them. I am in the District weekly and try to spread the word on these efforts as much as possible, but with 40,000 people in the District -- and some of them getting inaccurate information from Facebook -- it would be helpful to have you help spread the word.
Thank you again: No issue of this magnitude is solved by one person alone, and that is why I very much believe in -- and foster -- partnerships and collaboration.
