Romney to call for school aid overhaul

Governor Mitt Romney today will propose using a community's relative wealth, measured by property values and personal income, to determine how much it should receive in state school aid, a change that would be the most dramatic overhaul of state education funding in more than a decade.

Currently, the state distributes aid based on an old formula that relied heavily on property values. With that approach, communities with high property values but lower personal income -- many Cape Cod towns, for example -- have complained that they receive inadequate state aid and have clamored for action on Beacon Hill.

State aid to school districts attempts to ensure that every municipality, regardless of its economic status, has sufficient funds for its public schools.

Romney will unveil the details of his plan today when he files his budget with the Legislature; any change in the school aid formula requires approval by lawmakers. The governor's plan, the latest of many proposals circulating on Beacon Hill over the past two years, would base how much aid a community would receive on the sum of its residents' incomes and total property values.

The governor's proposal would address, in particular, concerns that some municipalities appear wealthier than they are because property values have soared while personal income has not; poorer residents cannot afford to pay higher property taxes to support the schools and make up for what state aid doesn't cover. The Romney plan also would increase school funding by 5 percent, double the increase he proposed last year.

Romney would not provide details about how his school aid proposal would play out in each community. He said his plan had a ''very good chance of passing" because it was similar to key aspects of some Democrats' proposals.

''I'm pleased that this is the highest local aid and state aid for education ever," Romney said yesterday, referring to the total dollar amount of school aid. ''I'm not suggesting that these are fat years, that this is a time for great excess. It is still a time for being very careful with budgets."

Overall, under Romney's proposal, state education spending would rise to $3.452 billion from $3.29 billion this year, a $164 million increase in Chapter 70 basic aid funding, the main pot of money for schools. Overall spending for K-12 education is up $275 million, including $95 million tied to controversial proposals like providing merit pay to teachers and hiring consultants to help failing schools.

In addition to making income a factor, the governor's proposal offers relief to school systems by giving the most aid to cities and towns that are growing the most. Districts also would get increases based on inflation.

Under Romney's plan, 305 of the state's 328 school systems would get increases in basic aid next year. Boston would receive an additional $5.7 million, a 2.8 percent increase based largely on inflation; Framingham would receive an additional $1.36 million, a nearly 16 percent increase; and Middleborough would get another $1 million, a 7 percent increase. The governor would not detail why each school system would benefit under his proposal; some are helped by the inflation factor, while others would get an increase because of rising enrollment or the inclusion of income as a factor.

The money to help communities deal with growing enrollments is a key concern. Without the boost Romney is proposing, 190 districts would receive no increase in state aid next year, the administration said yesterday.

But 23 school systems, because of dramatic declines in enrollment, would lose state money under Romney's proposal. Southbridge, a district with lower-than-average MCAS scores where enrollment is expected to drop next school year, would lose $355,000, for instance.

Some school committee leaders and others say they welcome more money but warn that Massachusetts still has not fully restored millions in cuts made in state aid over the past several years. Many school systems are struggling to pay for textbooks.

''Anyone who takes a cut at this stage . . . has a legitimate grievance," said Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.

Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, offered cautious support for including personal income in the equation. ''It would be on the path to progress in terms of getting communities back to where they were," he said of Romney's overall proposal.

The last overhaul in state education spending occurred in 1993, when legislators developed a plan to reduce spending gaps between rich and poor districts. Before 1993, the state did not mandate how much a city and town had to spend on education. After 1993, as part of the Education Reform Act, the state adopted a system for setting a minimum amount each year that school systems would be required to spend per pupil.

Formerly, the state used property values and personal income in a way different from the system Romney is proposing: Property value was the major factor and was adjusted to reflect a community's wealth. But the state stopped using those measures in 2001 as a factor in increasing state aid, in part because of input from property-rich, cash-poor towns. Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.