Published December 19, 2018
By JILLIAN STRING
LYNNFIELD — School Committee member Dorothy Presser presented a resolution in support of full funding for Massachusetts public schools at the Dec. 11 School Committee meeting.
“In 1993, we passed (Education) Reform (that) changed the funding formula to (have) less reliance on the property taxes to fund education and more reliance on the state funds,” Presser said. “The idea being that there would be more equity between communities in the ability to give students the education that was expected.”
This state funding refers to the Chapter 70 Program from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
DESE describes the program as “the major program of state aid to public elementary and secondary schools.”
“In addition to providing state aid to support school operations, it also establishes minimum spending requirements for each school district and minimum requirements for each municipality’s share of school costs,” the DESE states.
Presser said the formula used to calculate the foundation budget for Chapter 70 funding was supposed to be evaluated and revised after seven years.
“Originally in the law, after seven years the formula was supposed to be reexamined and revised,” Presser said. “Twenty-five years later, we really haven’t gotten to that point yet. The funding is not equitable. It hasn’t been updated. The funding formula does not take into account technology that has changed. It does not take into account social-emotional needs that have developed, the growth of English Language Learners, and so forth…things in education that have changed in the past 25 years.”
Presser continued on to state that communities, on average, are spending 20 percent more than the Chapter 70 foundation budget would require them to spend. As this additional funding comes from tax income, inequities between districts continue to grow.
“A number of years ago, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center did a study of where the gaps were, and found that the foundation budget really underfunded complete health insurance and special education in the assumptions that they made,” Presser added.
Presser said the State Legislature created a Foundation Budget Review Commission in 2015, which determined the foundation budget had been underfunded.
The commission created some recommendations that would update the formula used to calculate the foundation budget to better cover health insurance and special education costs.
“Up to this point, the legislature has not acted on those recommendations, so the resolution, which actually comes from the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association, is a resolution to try and put some pressure on the Legislature to go ahead and fund the commitment we hope that they would make to education,” Presser said.
Presser noted that the proposed increase in funding would rollout across five years, providing Lynnfield with an additional $561,250 in state funding.
“Do you know what percentage of our budget is funded through state funding,” School Committee Chairman Jamie Hayman asked.
Presser stated that Lynnfield currently receives the minimum level of funding from the state, which represents 17.5 percent of the budget. This leaves the district to supplement roughly one million dollars in education expenses.
