City, school budget-makers learn to speak each other's language

City, school budget-makers learn to speak each other's language

By Samantha Allen TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — It started out with an acknowledgment that things had been less than "harmonious" in the past between city government and the public schools; it ended with a plan to move forward together.

In the second installment of a conversation on funding public education in Worcester, sponsored by The Research Bureau and the Worcester Education Collaborative, officials came together Wednesday morning to look at the state of schools.

Some attending the discussion pointed to students not having textbooks to bring home, or teachers having to pay out-of-pocket for supplies. Superintendent Melinda J. Boone said she regretted some students having two study halls in their school day because of a lack of money for electives.

"I'm embarrassed to say (that)," she said.

At MCPHS University, Ms. Boone and City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. each reviewed their goals. Mr. Augustus called for more "transparency and honesty" around school financing. He said all school costs should be reflected in the foundation budget, including crossing guards. He noted that lowering class sizes from as high as 30 students per teacher is another priority.

Congress could soon allow pension plans to cut benefits for current retirees...From the Washington Post

 Congress could soon allow pension plans to cut benefits for current retirees
Michael A. Fletcher

© Paul Sancya/AP Photo In a Thursday, July 3, 2014 file photo, Detroit retirees Mike Shane, left, and William Davis protest near the federal courthouse in Detroit. Workers and retirees approved pension cuts in Detroit's bankruptcy by a landslide, the city reported Monday, a crucial step to emerging from the largest municipal…

Congress could soon allow the benefits of current retirees to be cut as part of an agreement to address the fiscal distress confronting some of the nation’s 1,400 multi-employer pension plans.

Several unions and pension advocates opposing the move, which would be unprecedented, say that permitting financially strapped plans to cut retiree benefits would violate the central promise of traditional pensions: that they would provide a defined benefit for life.

“This proposal would devastate retirees and their surviving spouses,” said Karen Friedman, executive vice president of the Pension Rights Center, a nonprofit group. “The proposal would also torpedo basic protections of the federal private pension law . . . that states that once benefits are earned they can’t be cut back.”

Several of the nation’s large multi-employer pension plans are on a course that would leave them insolvent within a decade. If that occurred, the federal insurance fund that protects the retirement benefits of more than 10 million Americans in multi-employer plans could collapse.

Local leaders vocal at first hearing on school finance law

Local leaders vocal at first hearing on school finance law 

November 24, 2014

The state’s basic school spending standard significantly understates the real cost of educating students, especially in how it accounts for special education, school employee health insurance, and technology.

This was the message from legislators and municipal officials from across the North Shore during a Nov. 17 public hearing in Danvers held by the special state commission established to study school finance law.

Municipal and school officials from the area also told members of the Foundation Budget Review Commission that unfunded mandates and the way that charter schools are funded are hurting local school programs.

Newburyport Mayor Donna Holaday told commission members that her city was struggling to provide adequate support for schools and had been forced to cut teachers and school staff and programs. The way the state funds charter schools, she said, was hurting her local schools and effectively reduces the state Chapter 70 school aid contribution to the city’s $33 million school budget to less than $2 million.

Amesbury Mayor Ken Gray told commission members that Chapter 70 aid was a shrinking share of school spending in his city and that unfunded mandates are a problem. Amesbury, he said, has also been forced to cut local school programs.

According to David Tobin, representing the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, actual local spending on schools under Chapter 70 totaled $11.7 billion in fiscal 2014, more than $2 billion above the “foundation” budget standard. In written testimony, he said that actual spending on special education and employee benefits and health insurance exceeded the standards for these two cost items by $2.2 billion. The result, he noted, is that adequate funding is not available for the teaching and learning necessary for students and schools to continue to make progress.

The MASS testimony included six recommendations for changes to the foundation budget.

The Foundation Budget Review Commission has scheduled six public hearings across the state, with the next meeting scheduled for Dec. 15 in Somerset. Other meetings are scheduled for Jan. 10 in western Massachusetts, Jan. 24 in central Massachusetts, Feb. 7 on Cape Cod, and March 9 in Boston. Details will be posted on the MMA website as soon as locations are announced.

The MMA website includes a way for local officials to provide comments on school finance issues to MMA staff and Attleboro Mayor and MMA President Kevin Dumas, who serves as the MMA representative on the commission. For the comment form as well as background information, visit www.mma.org/foundation.

The commission, established by the fiscal 2015 state budget act, is charged with reviewing parts of Chapter 70 school finance law, with a focus on how the “foundation” spending standard is calculated.

At the first meeting of the commission in October, Rep. Alice Peisch, co-chair of the commission and House chair of the Legislature’s Committee on Education, said that analysis should focus on foundation budget “outliers,” where model spending amounts set under state law for different categories are out of line with actual spending in those categories. She mentioned two areas where costs have been growing at unsustainable rates: employee benefits (for both active employee health insurance and retiree benefits) and special education costs.

Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, Senate chair of the Committee on Education, is the other co-chair of the commission.

The commission is comprised of 21 voting members and a six-member non-voting advisory committee. The commission includes eight legislators and four members of the Executive Branch. There are nine members representing other public education stakeholders, including Mayor Dumas.

• MMA’s Foundation Budget Review Commission resource page

Written by MMA Legislative Director John Robertson

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Keep an eye on the Foundation Budget Review Commission

 The Foundation Budget Review Commission has an important task. This Commission is the first review of the foundation budget since education reform was enacted in 1993. 

Since 1993, state funding for municipal budgets has been slashed dramatically. When hard financial times hit the state budget, Chapter 70, transportation, circuit breaker money line items have been "Held Harmless" ie - not cut. State  funding for municipal budgets has absorbed the lion's share of these draconian cuts over the years. 

For FY 15, Sen. Brewer worked very hard to raise funding for regional school transportation to an historic 90 % funding. I believe this was to provide some financial relief to towns who are members of regional school districts. That didn't happen here in Templeton nor  in Phillipston. Ruth Miller, the NRSD school superintendent decided to keep that money.

Funding of regional school districts, using the calculations set forth in the foundation budget, is confusing. I believe the calculations used to fund of regional school districts was designed an afterthought, partly due to  the mistaken perception that the majority of school districts are not regional in Massachusetts. 

There is an organization, Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS)which maintains a list of its members here. 

At last count there were over 180 regional school districts in Mass that are members of MARS. 

With well over half of the 351 communities in Massachusetts impacted by membership in a regional school district, it is hoped that the Foundation Budget Review Commission will seriously consider the impact of regional school budgets on local municipalities. 

An honest review of the "nuclear option" -  603 CMR 41.05  which was used to eviscerate Templeton's municipal operating budget  is clearly in order.

My opinions...supported by FACTS ! ! ! 

Julie Farrell