Local officials blast school funding mandate
By James F. Russell TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
HOLDEN — Local officials, worried about their increasing inability to find money to pay for a state mandate that dictates what communities must spend each year on public schools gathered Thursday to argue for changing the law.
Many of the 100 attending the public forum in the Wachusett Regional High School auditorium said the funding formula in the 1993 education reform law is broken and the education mandates are bankrupting their communities. They said they hope a recently formed state panel will recommend changes that will bring some relief.
The 21-person Foundation Budget Review Commission, created by the Legislature in July, is supposed to investigate how the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education determines the amount of money each city and town is required to spend.
"The real issue for a lot of towns is this mandate — telling us how much we have to spend," Spencer Town Administrator Adam Gaudette said before introducing the speakers. He was one of the organizers of the event.
"The way they do things now pits the town against the school — and it shouldn't," said Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School Committee member Angela Knapton.
Stephen R. Hemman, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools, provided an overview on how the state funding formula is applied. It is supposed to be based on a community's ability to pay.
Wachusett Regional School Committee member Stacey Jackson shared research on the regional impact of the funding formula that she and others recently completed.
She focused on the minimum local contribution — the amount the state determines a community must pay to adequately fund education.
"What is going on with these MLC increases?" she said. "There have been cases when the minimum local contribution has jumped 30 percent in one year alone.
"What happens in these towns? The budget gets decimated," Ms. Jackson said. "That's the problem a lot of towns are facing — and that's why we're here tonight," she said to the attendees.
She said 14 of the 58 Central Massachusetts communities "have an ongoing, yearly problem" trying to conform to the state's minimum education spending mandate. She said that overall, about half of the municipalities struggle with huge annual increases.
Mr. Gaudette said communities are left with the option of a tax increase, and if the Proposition 2½ override fails, then municipal services are cut.
He said his town has rejected four tax hikes in recent years, and he cited other communities where overrides have failed.
The chairman of Harvard's board of selectmen, Stu Sklar, in an interview after he listened to a presentation from a department of education budget expert, Melissa King, said the funding formula is broken beyond repair.
"She is explaining a broken formula," Mr. Sklar said. "Why are we even talking about it?"
The selectman said he is optimistic that the Foundation Budget Review Commission will find a way to deal with the problem.
The commission held its first public forum Monday in Danvers. Five more are planned across the state, including one in Central Massachusetts
State Rep. Kim Ferguson, R-Holden, attended the meeting. She is also a member of the budget review panel.
"This has been something this region has been talking about for a long time," Ms. Ferguson said in an interview. She said it is important for local officials in Worcester County to "have a unified voice" when they meet with the commission.
State Rep. Anne M. Gobi, D-Spencer, was asked whether the recent budget cuts proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick to plug a nearly $400 million forecasted state budget deficit could get in the way of progress on reforming the education funding formula.
Ms. Gobi said she did not believe that would happen.
"They are two separate pockets," she said.
Ms. Gobi also said the governor's attempt to slice $18 million from regional school bus transportation would not fly.
"There is $1.2 billion in the (state) rainy day fund right now" and if needed, that money will be used to offset any cuts the governor may make in regional transportation, she said.
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ReplyDeleteIn addition to reviewing the impact of the Minimum Local Contribution on municipal budgets, a review of 603 CMR 41.05 is necessary.
ReplyDeleteThere are many ways to eviscerate a local municipalities operating budget. Regional school districts have the legal ability to call for a joint town meeting and gut a local municipality's operating budget.
Locally, this occurred in the Narragansett Regional School District (NRSD)and the Spencer East Brookfield District.
Narragansett Regional School District has two member towns - Templeton and Phillipston. Last Fiscal year, Templeton voted NO 4 times to increase its assessment to NRSD. A Joint town meeting was held in accordance with 603 CMR 41.05 . The result of that Joint Town Meeting turned 4 NO votes into a Yes vote and gutted the Town of Templeton's operating budget. :(
The cost of all of the special town meetings and the necessity of an override( successful) created a lot of stress and anxiety in Templeton.
The amount of time devoted to the passage of a successful override masked the true financial problem in Templeton of a $505,000 structural deficit. The effects of that structural deficit have a direct impact on Templeton today.
Templeton came very close to state receivership. While Templeton's financial situation has improved, Templeton will always face the threat of having its operating budget decimated by the NRSD....as long as 603 CMR 41.05 is law.
A review of the foundation budget is long overdue and will hopefully create some equity of local municipalities. Part of the problem is that regional school districts have always been an afterthought when the calculations for the minimum contribution were derived..
and don't forget that imaginary calculation of "net school spending"
After reviewing the events of 9/11 and especially what occurred with Building Seven (the third skyscraper that fell that day) Building Seven this reporter has come to the conclusion that compulsory education has not made us any smarter and in fact has dumbed us down. Add to this point (Building Seven) the promotion of an enzymatic poison (fluoride) through our public school system's school nurses and one has to wonder just what it is that is being funded through compulsory education. What I am saying is "we the people" need to look at the foundations of education. John Taylor Gatto has written the book The Underground History of American Education that in my opinion is a must read for all. If I were a carpenter and built my houses on foundations that shifted, crumbled, were out of square and not meant to carry the load of the building being built upon it, I would consider looking at the foundation as being a possible problem for my finished product. The first twenty seven installments for John Taylor Gatto's book The Underground History of American Education can be found at Templeton Times blog 01436 or just click on the blue link that says Gatto. Gatto You may never look at compulsory education the same, after taking the time to read this thought provoking book.
ReplyDeleteTempleton is not out of the financial woods yet, and may not be for many years. Sometimes I think we should have just gone bankrupt and started from scratch. The people in our town offices and other departments have suffered, with the exception of Light and Water. The School Committee has failed our town in my estimation, because they are not in touch with how town government works, the problem the town was in, and it seems they could care less. It is like a large group of bullies taking the last scrap of food from a dying man, and telling him, "oh, you don't need that !!" Lets hope these budget cuts the state is planning, do not hurt our town any more than it has been hurt already. I do think we need to have a new by-law that says the superintendent of schools has to live in the community the school is in. Maybe then the problems of the community would be more clear when it is time for the administration to gut the town's budget. Bev. .
DeleteSince there is no requirement and not should there be for a town administrator or police or fire chief to live in town, there should be no such requirement of a superintendent of schools. Elected school committee members already meet that requirement. Interestingly, with the number of parents who have children in these schools and are voters, I find it odd that tax overrides for said schools do not pass almost automatically because it is all about the kids. Oh! The parents really do not wish to pay more taxes than they have to, even when it affects the kids. If the state mandates it, they should supply the funds thru school aid.
ReplyDeleteJeff, you are right but the way things are now, the only people who feel the pain of cuts in the town funding are the people who work for the town. As long as these cuts do not affect anyone else, nothing will change. The town really needed the money when the school administration took it, because they could. The bottom line is the people in this town do not feel they can spend any more, from the vote in the last election. So until the School Committee will work with the town, nothing will improve. Bev.
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