Resolution on a Permanent School Finance Plan

As adopted by the members, January 13, 2001

Whereas, the Massachusetts Constitution imposes an enforceable duty on the governor and the Legislature to provide for the education of children in the public schools of the commonwealth; and

Whereas, the governor and the Legislature have for more than 350 years required cities and towns to govern, administer and pay for the public schools under the direction of provincial and state government; and

Whereas, current state school finance law requires that public schools be funded through a combination of state payments from state tax revenues and local contributions from the property tax and other local revenues; and

Whereas, state school finance law presently provides an inadequate and inequitable distribution of payments from state revenues to ensure high quality public education for all children.

Therefore it is hereby resolved that:
• The governor and the Legislature should update and change the Chapter 70 school finance law to improve the adequacy, equity and stability of the system of funding public education in Massachusetts; and

• The governor and the Legislature should regularly review and make changes to the Foundation Budget to ensure that the various factors reflect the true and reasonable cost of providing a sufficient public education for all schoolchildren consistent with McDuffy v. Secretary of the Executive Office of Education, 1993; and

• The governor and the Legislature should enact a long-term school aid schedule under which state support for total required school spending statewide would be not less than 50 percent of required spending under Chapter 70; and

• The governor and the Legislature should change the current very complex Chapter 70 school aid distribution formula to the following four-step formula:

• Base Aid for a fiscal year would be the total Chapter 70 school aid distributed in the prior year; and

• Per Student Aid would be weighted per-student distributions based on special weights for different categories of students (low income: 2.5, special education: 1.75, and bilingual: 1.5); and

• Foundation Aid to close any shortfall between the Foundation Budget calculated for a school district and the total of Per Student Aid and the Minimum Required Local Contribution; and

• High Enrollment Growth Aid to provide extra school aid for school districts in which enrollment growth exceeds the statewide average over the prior four-year period.

It is further resolved that, the Massachusetts Municipal Association shall continue to advocate for an adequate, fair and stable school finance law.