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Date: 9/30/2020
HUNTINGTON – Gateway Regional Superintendent Dr. David B. Hopson sent out an email to school and town officials Sept. 23, sounding an alarm about a new proposal for Chapter 70 state aid to education that could cost the district and member towns an additional $1 to $1.5 million per year beginning in 2022.
The analysis and proposal, written by the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education and the Boston Chamber of Commerce, would eliminate the “hold harmless” provision in Chapter 70 funding which takes into account schools experiencing declining enrollment and adds $25 to $30 per student at Gateway every year.
The report, entitled “Missing the Mark: How Chapter 70 Education Aid District Benefits Wealthier School District and Widens Equity Gaps” is available online at mbae.org/missing-the-mark.
“If you want to ‘fix’ the chapter 70 formula, if you eliminate all the hold harmless, it frees up a lot of money that you can put into lower paid school districts,” Hopson said is the rationale being promoted, adding that the formula focuses on Eastern Massachusetts and completely disregards smaller and rural schools that are losing population, located primarily in central and Western Massachusetts and Cape Cod.
“If their suggestions were to be put into place, Gateway would lose well over $1 million in funding, similar to every other district in Massachusetts that has seen a decline in enrollment,” Hopson said.
Julie Kelley, a research analyst for the Massachusetts Association of Regional School Districts, notes in a letter to school districts that the proposal requests that “Boston, which has not only been the biggest recipient of hold harmless aid (with some years in the $70 to $80 million range), has also the wealthiest tax base of any municipality in the entire Commonwealth - be exempt from their policy recommendations, as they believe their student demographics warrant the continued ‘needs-blind aid’ for the Boston Public School District.”
“I find their analysis to be significantly flawed, and further believe their policy recommendations to be dangerous and definitely not cognizant of the many variables and moving pieces that not only make every school district unique, but also their member towns' capacity to pay equally so,” Kelley wrote.
The policy recommendations have gone to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), the Department of Revenue (DOR) and the legislature for review, and DESE is taking public comments until Oct. 16.
Hopson said the impact to Gateway would be as bad as in 2003 and 2004 when the district lost significant state funding that forced the elimination of 38 positions in the district and eventually the consolidation of elementary schools.
“As a district, we cannot afford to go through this level of reduction again, and therefore I would urge our local officials, parents, students, and other supporters to share your concerns with the DESE at http://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/chapter70/local-contribution-study.html as well as contacting our state officials,” Hopson said.
“Small and rural school districts continue to be left behind in terms of funding, broadband, and student opportunities which have become even more evident during the current COVID crisis – we cannot take much more and still survive as a functioning system that's needed to educate our future citizens,” Hopson said.