BOSTON — Massachusetts school districts are facing a fiscal cliff that could lead to cuts in staffing and services, an education advocacy group says as it urges lawmakers to rethink their approach to school funding. did.
Gov. Maura Healey's 2025 budget calls for a 4% increase in public education aid, known as Chapter 70 funding, from $6.5 billion to $6.85 billion. Her proposed $263 million increase for K-12 schools would follow her $594 million, or 9.9%, increase in Chapter 70 funding in the fiscal year 2024 budget. The account balance for fiscal year 2021 was $5.3 billion.
The Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and the Massachusetts School Boards Association told lawmakers during recent budget hearings that despite this infusion of aid, school budgets have not kept pace with inflation.
Additionally, the current school funding system is depleting its coffers due to declining enrollment, and the $1.5 billion Student Opportunity Act, aimed at filling the education funding gap, focuses primarily on plugging holes in urban areas. They say local schools are hurting because of the location. .
School groups have made their case to House Democrats, who are expected to announce a rewrite of Healey's spending bill in April.
not keeping up with inflation
“Our school district has heard widespread reports of a cliff effect of reduced budget revenue, primarily due to inflation rates calculated over the past three years, resulting in reduced student programs and programs this year. There will be significant reductions in services,” said Mary Burke, co-executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents.
Bourg said school costs have “increased dramatically” in recent years due to high inflation rates, from special education and transportation to building maintenance, curriculum costs and increased living costs for faculty and staff. He said it was affecting everything.
Foundation funding for schools increased by only 4.5%, compared to inflation of 7% in 2023 and 8% in 2024, he said.
This year, Healey's Chapter 70 allocation applied an inflation rate of 1.35% to the foundation budget rate, based on the U.S. Department of Commerce's state and local price deflator, the administration said.
With the national inflation rate approaching 3%, applying a lower inflation rate would “lead many school districts to be desperately short of real cost increases, including negotiated labor costs.” said Mildred Lefebvre, president of the Massachusetts Association of School Boards and the Holyoke School Board. member.
Superintendent and school committee groups, as well as the state chapter of the state's two largest teachers unions, the Massachusetts Teachers Union and the American Federation of Teachers, all endorsed lawmakers' request to “correct flaws in the formal treatment of Chapter 70.” I supported it. Inflation” is “causing a severe funding cliff for our school district.”
“Under the original structure of Chapter 70, the value lost to inflation at the time was supposed to be made up in future years. However, due to a glitch that was an unintended consequence of the formula change, “Years no longer factor into future years. And this has serious implications for our schools. We need to fix this.” said Burke.
School-based organizations are required to add 2.58% inflation in fiscal year 2025 to make up for the value lost in fiscal year 2023 and to amend the law so that the value lost in fiscal year 2024 will be made up in the future. is proposed.
Asked by Representative Andy Vargas how much it would cost to bring inflation up to the proposed amount, Burke said, “I agree it would be around $400 million.”
System for low income people
A March 1 hearing in Greenfield discussed how Chapter 70 counts low-income students and how more Advocates also expressed concerns about directing more funding to school districts that serve low-income families. Income Qualified Program.
Healey's budget reinstates a stricter definition of low-income, limiting its designation to households making less than 185% of the federal poverty level, up from 133% of the federal poverty level used from fiscal years 2017 to 2022. Replaces the “economically disadvantaged” designation based on The Chapter 70 funding formula directs funds to school districts with higher proportions of low-income students who may need more resources and support.
Additionally, the formula calculates the district's low-income population based on the number of students participating in state public assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Transition Assistance for Families with Dependent Children, MassHealth, and foster care. Determine the number of students enrolled.
But those programs have seen significant enrollment declines over the past year as a pandemic-era freeze on program eligibility expired.
Massachusetts is now nearly finished with its campaign to determine how many of MassHealth's 2.4 million enrollees last April will be eligible for publicly funded health insurance. The federal government has prohibited people from losing Medicaid coverage during the pandemic. The policy was ended and all 50 states were required to undertake a major overhaul as well.
Because MassHealth student numbers are one of the determining factors for Chapter 70, education advocates say some districts where students are “redeterminated” from public health insurance are also losing school funding. he claimed.
“More than 6,000 students dropped from the low-income count in one year. This suggests that the number of low-income students has not actually decreased that much, and that there was something wrong with the numbers. I think so,” Tracy said. O'Connell Novick is a field director for the Massachusetts School Boards Association and a former member of the Worcester School Board.
In Pittsfield, two students changed their income classification this year, impacting the district's foundation budget by $1 million, Novick said.
“Are you saying that even if you lose a student because their family's income is above the threshold, they should still be counted as a low-income student? Even if their family's income is actually Are you suggesting that even if it exceeds the standards defined for low-income students?'' Sen. Jason Lewis, chairman of the Joint Committee on Education, responded.
Lewis added that districts can manually qualify low-income students.
Novick responded that families are afraid to share their financial information or identify as low-income.
“What school districts have been finding out for a long time, and I think is probably having an even bigger impact now, is whether families are actually willing to submit all kinds of information to get certified. ,” Novick said.
Lewis said he plans to sit down with education advocates to discuss the changes they propose, but needs more information.
Rural schooling assistance and minimum assistance
Amid questions being raised about the entire Chapter 70 formula, Western Massachusetts residents also argued during a March 1 budget hearing that the current funding system is leading the region to a “fiscal crisis.”
“The situation facing rural schools is dire, and I quote it as detailed in the 2022 Rural Schools Report. “They need it and they deserve it. Some rural high schools are offering AP courses, business programs, and arts courses.” , social studies, electives, and most oral language,” said Rep. Natalie Blais of Deerfield.
In these rural areas, where population growth is flat, small-town governments will have to finance a higher percentage of school budgets from stagnant tax bases, according to a 2022 report from the Select Committee on Rural School Districts that Brace referenced. It is said that it will not happen.
Meanwhile, enrollment is declining as young families move out of rural areas, impacting school districts' Chapter 70 funding. From 2012 to 2020, rural enrollment decreased by 13.9%, according to the commission's report.
The $1.5 million Student Opportunity Act, the state's largest injection of education funding in the past decade, will be phased in to Bay State Schools over six years, targeting districts with high proportions of low-income students and English language learners. Designed to direct the most funds. Districts in so-called gateway cities are receiving a major boost.
“We know that probably 96 school districts are receiving about 80 percent of that amount,” K-12 Commissioner Jeffrey Riley said last year. “We also know that there are probably many more districts, probably 115 or so, that are receiving minimal assistance. So in a time of inflationary pressures, this is something we will continue to monitor.”
Northampton Superintendent Portia Bonner said 212 school districts are expected to receive minimal aid from the state this year due to declining enrollment. Mr. Bonner, along with MASC and MASS, called for minimum aid funding to be $100 per student. Last year, these districts received $60 per person.
“This is critical for school districts in the western part of the state, where low enrollment and staffing ratios remain a significant cost to districts. Overall, as state funding stagnates, cities and towns “School costs are increasing faster than we can keep up,” she said. “The City of Northampton rallied strongly in support of the Student Opportunity Act, recognizing the important goal of increasing aid to school districts that serve the highest-needs students. The City of Amherst has also not realized funding from SOA. Please consider financial considerations to meet the needs of all districts. ”
Sen. Joe Comerford, R-Northampton, said the administration's new early education and care proposal, which would expand universal preschool programs to all 26 Gateway Cities by 2026, will once again focus on urban centers. He added that he was disappointed in the situation.
“I would like to express my deep respect for the new early child care initiative starting in the Gateway City only, which has been a deep disappointment for child care providers in Western Massachusetts,” Comerford said. “It’s not that we don’t love our colleagues in the Gateway City, it’s that we voted here in favor of the Student Opportunity Act, which is really starting to revolutionize, especially in the Gateway City… It's really hard to go to the community.'' Start with them at the table as well. ”
Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler, who represents the Healey administration, responded that the governor's proposal prioritizes these low-income cities but “does not preclude other communities from applying.”
Mr. Comerford asked Mr. Tutwiler if he would be willing to consider redesigning the Chapter 70 formula and providing minimal assistance to districts.
“I think we are seeing a downward spiral in the district that I represent,” she said.
The Secretary replied, “I will defer to Congress on this matter.''
“If we decide this is the right next step, we will be happy to sit down at the table and discuss it and be a partner in that effort,” Tutwiler said.
He added that he would be happy to join a working group looking at school funding in response to a request from Mr Comerford.
“I think that's an excellent offer,” Mr. Comerford replied.
