Monday, February 22, 2016

A word on Springfield and Brockton

Here's some work I've been doing for MASC. DESE has shared with us the full report of district-by-district finance information regarding the foundation budget for FY14.
Ahead of tomorrow's Board of Ed meeting where the Board will decide on new charter schools for Springfield and Brockton, I thought it important to share what those districts are already facing in their foundation budget gaps.
(as per usual, you can click to make them bigger)

The foundation budget account that has biggest undercalculation--special education is in multiple accounts--is, of course, the health insurance account. For FY14, that account was undercalculated by $30 million:

As a results of health insurance and special education, Springfield underspent on teachers in FY14 by $36 million:

And that is not the only account in which there has been underspending: both other teaching and operations & maintenance are significantly underfunded, as well:



For the city of Brockton, in FY14, health insurance was undercalculated by $19.5 million:


As a result, for FY14, classroom teachers were underfunded by $8.2 million for FY14

And, again, that is not the only category that is significantly underfunded: other teaching, PD, instructional materials & technology, and operations & maintenance:


So, is the biggest problem facing the Springfield and Brockton public schools whatever charter seats that may or may not be open in their cities? Or is it that their district school system, which educate the vast majority of children in both cities, are chronically underfunded and the state has not dealt with it?


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