Patrick's education plan faces setbacks

Economy tempers goals, report says

Given the state's poor financial health, Governor Deval Patrick's ambitious education overhaul proposal will have to be scaled back for now to instead find ways to maintain the current level of quality in the state's schools, according to a report released yesterday by a special gubernatorial commission.

The Readiness Finance Commission said the economic downturn, which has already prompted $1.4 billion in state cuts, prevented it from pursuing an initial goal of finding new revenue sources to pay for Patrick's Readiness Project, which aims to provide a free public education from preschool through the initial years of college.

Instead, the committee urged the adoption of several cost-saving measures, which would help school districts to stave off budget cuts that threaten programs. The report said those recommendations could yield at least $550 million in savings.

Paul Reville, the state's education secretary, stressed in a telephone interview yesterday afternoon that the governor's plan is not dead.

"There is no question that the Readiness Project is a victim of the economic circumstances, just as any new initiative is at this time," he said. "But we will adjust the plan accordingly and keep the vision alive and act on various measures when the time is right."

Yet even pursuing the cost-saving measures could prove difficult, Reville said. Several recommendations, he said, have generated controversy when floated earlier by the governor. Among them: requiring teachers to join a statewide insurance plan, switching retired teachers to Medicare, and encouraging school districts with fewer than 1,500 students to consolidate.

Other less controversial recommendations included having districts regionalize some administrative operations, such as school lunch programs, busing, and building maintenance, as well as imploring more school districts to file often cumbersome paperwork to receive Medicaid reimbursement for some special-education costs.

The governor appointed the 23-member Readiness Finance Commission, which represents a broad spectrum of education and business leaders, last June before the downturn. He charged the group with finding a sustainable way to pay for public education as well as identifying revenue sources to support new programs without raising local property taxes.

The commission, which said in the report that it remained committed to the long-term goals of the governor's education overhaul effort, did include some ideas to raise revenue in the future, such as increasing the state's 5 percent sales tax by one percentage point, which could generate about $720 million. But that recommendation, like most others in the report, did not receive unanimous support from commission members.

"Though a few members expressed concern about raising revenues during a recession and felt that the state should require implementation of cost-savings measures before looking to new revenues, commission members strongly believed that the critical role of the education sector warrants support for new, incremental investments, even in this down economy," the report said.

Reville said that although he endorses the cost-saving measures, he would not take a position on any revenue-generating options, adding that was a task better suited for the governor's financial advisers. Reville said the governor will review the report before deciding whether to pursue the recommendations.

In a written statement, the governor said "The commission's report will help us accomplish the Readiness Project's goal of transforming public education in Massachusetts."

Anne Wass, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, says her group objects to forcing teachers to change health insurance benefits because it might lead to higher out-of-pocket expenses for teachers and retirees.

"It's not very reasonable to impose increased cost on retirees who already are living on a fixed income," said Wass, also a Readiness Finance Commission member.

Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said he found the recommendations to be thoughtful but insufficient to push ahead the governor's education agenda.

"There is nothing there that is irresponsible or unrealistic," Koocher said. "It must be a tremendous disappointment for those excited about the next wave of education reform to have the invisible hand of the economy tearing at your master plan. Bad money ruins everything."