Friday, May 30, 2014

settling the budget in conference committee

Reading the MassBudget analysis of differences between the House and Senate budgets that remain to be settled in conference committee. As the Chapter 70 funding was settled ahead of time, the big numbers have already been settled. The biggest differences are district reimbursements (more heavily funded Senate side) and grants (ELT and kindergarten, both funded more heavily by the House).
Of note for districts like Lynn, that have not been counting teacher retirement towards Net School Spending: both included language to phase in counting it. MassBudget notes:
While this change will equalize district spending requirements, it will ultimately allow many communities to spend less on public education. 
...and that's not good. 

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