Lawmakers push for hike in school aid
House votes $173m; Senate eyes $200m
Under pressure from angry parents, educators, and town officials, the Legislature is poised to add millions more in funding for schools, the largest jump since the economy went into a tailspin in 2002.
The Senate is preparing an increase of slightly more than $200 million, or about a 6 percent jump, for public schools in next year's budget, which starts July 1, according to Senate Ways and Means chairwoman Therese Murray.
''This is the biggest increase we've seen in a number of years," said Senate Education Committee chairman Robert A. Antonioni. ''I think this is a big reform that many communities have been waiting for."
The details of the Senate's nearly $3.5 billion budget proposal for schools trickled out yesterday as the House rushed to add dollars to its own budget plan. The House around midnight voted 143-13 to increase basic school aid by $173.1 million over this year. That is a smaller increase than the Senate proposal, but still a sizable jump over an earlier House budget that some lawmakers and advocates described as stingy.
In another major change, the House and Senate plans call for the state to eventually pay 15 percent of the amount the state requires to be spent on students, increasing to that share over the next five years. Currently 67 of the 330 school systems receive less than that amount from the state; many low-income cities and towns get much more. The individual cities and towns pay much of the rest.
House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi said lawmakers made it clear in the past two weeks that they wanted to spend more on schools.
''Basically we listened to our membership," he said. ''It was a matter of actually convincing all of us that this was the right time to make this kind of investment in education."
Yesterday, Eric Fehrnstrom, Governor Mitt Romney's spokesman, welcomed the increase in funding but would not commit to supporting the higher spending plans. ''One of Governor Romney's budget priorities is to provide more money to local schools," Fehrnstrom said. ''He's willing to work with legislators who share that priority."
Because this is an election year, lawmakers are under heightened pressure to heed voters' concerns as they plot out a state budget that will be roughly $25 billion overall. The efforts by Beacon Hill attempt to please a wide swath of constituents and their schools, from wealthy suburbs to lower-income cities.
The Senate spending plan would alter the state funding formula for schools by taking into account the income of a town's residents, as well as its property values, when deciding how much the town can afford to pay for its schools. That is intended to relieve cities and towns that complain soaring property values make their municipalities appear wealthier than they are.
The House and Romney have a similar plan.
Another proposed change in the Senate plan adjusts the state formula that decides how much each school system needs to educate its students. The Senate plan would boost funding for special education students, students who aren't fluent in English, and low-income students.
''There is no one cookie-cutter approach that's going to give everybody what they need," Murray, the Senate Ways and Means chairwoman, said in an interview with the Globe.
Lawmakers are also considering another change that would raise the inflation factor used to calculate the rate of increase for the school budget every year.
The proposed Senate increase would be the largest since 2002, when the economy went into a tailspin, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. In 2003-04, the state cut nearly $150 million from schools.
Still, the Senate proposal doesn't return cities and towns to the level of spending they had, when adjusted for inflation, in the 2001-02 school year, said Michael Widmer president of the Taxpayers Foundation.
School systems from Lowell to Lexington hailed the Senate plan yesterday. But they said even a $200 million increase isn't enough to make up for cuts that have wracked cities and towns.
Before lawmakers suggested the larger budget amounts yesterday, Medford school officials said they were considering cutting high school sports and clubs, and Worcester this week sent layoff notices to 117 teachers, 6 percent of the staff.
Officials in Lowell, which was represented in a failed lawsuit that accused the state of not adequately funding schools, said conditions are worse now than when they were testifying in court in 2003.
At that time, Lowell had full-time librarians at every elementary school, but now those positions are gone, replaced with part-timers, said Superintendent Karla Baehr. Lowell also had one computer for a handful of students, but now there are even fewer computers to go around, so it is much harder for students to do their work.
''It's a step in the right direction but it certainly will not address all of the issues," said Baehr of the funding proposal, a day after she joined hundreds who rallied for more funds.
In Lexington, town officials are planning to ask voters to increase property taxes to spend more on schools. Otherwise, said Lexington Superintendent Paul Ash, the district will have to lay off about 30 teachers, eliminate Spanish-language classes in elementary schools, and raise the price of lunch. Also under consideration is a charge to students for music lessons and an increase in fees to play sports, which now stand at $270 a student.
''School districts across Massachusetts are really suffering," said Ash. ''The communities desperately need the money."
Murray said she agreed with Romney and the House in deciding to lift the cap on lottery aid, freeing more money for cities and towns.
Further, she would also give towns more money for having state-owned land, and increase other aid for cities and towns.
After passing their versions of the budget, the House and Senate will hammer out their differences and send a final version to the governor, who may veto all or parts of it. The process typically ends in June, in time for the July 1 start of the fiscal year. 