North Middlesex Regional High School. (Julia Malachy/Lowell Sun)
A failed state funding formula or an overreliance on one-time federal funding injections?
If you listen to the state's leading education lobbyists, you might assume the former, but individual school districts may include some of the latter.
Massachusetts school districts are facing a fiscal cliff that could lead to cuts in staff and services, according to education advocacy groups that are urging lawmakers to rethink the state's school funding structure.
In her fiscal year 2025 budget, Gov. Maura Healey increased public education aid, known as Chapter 70 funding, by 4% 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.
Despite this infusion of aid, the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and the Massachusetts School Boards Association told lawmakers during recent budget hearings that school budgets cannot keep up with inflation.
This is despite financial support from the Student Opportunity Act. But as noted, that $1.5 billion was primarily directed toward filling education funding gaps in urban areas, particularly gateway cities like Fitchburg and Lowell.
School groups recently made their case to House Democrats, who are expected to announce a rewrite of Healey's spending bill in April.
Mary Burke, co-executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said school costs have “increased dramatically” in recent years due to high inflation rates, from special education and transportation to building maintenance and maintenance. He said it is impacting everything from curriculum costs to costs. – Staff living expenses will increase.
He said that despite the inflation rate reaching 7% in 2023 and 8% in 2024, school establishment budgets have increased by only 4.5%.
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.
Superintendents, school board groups, and the state chapter of the state's two largest teachers unions, the Massachusetts Teachers Union and the American Federation of Teachers, all urged lawmakers to “fix deficiencies in the treatment of inflation in the Chapter 70 formula. '' support the request. ”
“Under the original structure of Chapter 70, the value lost due to inflation at the time was supposed to be repaid in the future. The value earned will no longer be reimbursed in future years. And this is having a serious impact on our schools. We need to fix this,” Burke said.
There are examples in our region of school districts dealing with funding shortfalls.
In Billerica, the school board recently passed a spending plan that some members noted already included a “historic” increase to $82,845,000, a 7.65% increase from the current fiscal year budget.
Despite this significant increase, the budget as currently written will require the elimination of certain positions, including registered behavior technicians, social-emotional learning coaches, and elementary-level reading and math instructional coaches.
It is still unclear how many positions will ultimately be lost. It will probably depend on how many retirements and departures take place by the end of the school year in June.
However, as one school principal acknowledged, many communities are currently dealing with the fallout associated with the temporary suspension of COVID-19 relief funds.
The end of federal coronavirus relief aid, known as ESSER funding, was not cited by the education lobby as a reason for the district's financial woes.
In March 2021, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, providing an additional $122 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding.
This aid, along with the previously passed CARES Act and CRRSA Act, brings total ESSER funding to approximately $190 billion to help state and local-level educational institutions address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. It became a dollar.
However, because ESSER funds are a one-time allocation, they are typically not included in budget items that have recurring costs, unless the state Department of Education or local school district knows they have the resources to cover future expenses. is not used.
We certainly don't dispute the impact the inflationary spiral of the past several years has had on budgets from families to local governments to public school districts.
It's a reality, and a lack of spending power can cause serious problems.
For example, the city of Dracut faces a $3.6 million deficit in fiscal year 2025 and is asking the city and schools to absorb $1.5 million of that shortfall.
And the North Middlesex Regional School District asks its member communities Pepperell and Townsend to vote to defeat Proposition 2 1/2 to raise an additional $3.314 million for next year's fiscal year budget. did.
However, some of these school districts' financial woes may be due to short-sighted use of coronavirus relief funds, such as hiring staff without future revenue sources to fund these positions. Gender cannot be ruled out, and this may have caused budget problems for schools. own deeds.
What is fairly certain is that given this year's disappointing revenues, it is doubtful that additional school funding will be provided.
