The latest round of state cuts

The Governor announced his plan to eliminate the $600 million budget gap (for FY10, this year) earlier this week. What does it do to Worcester education?

• Special education reimbursements are down (statewide by nearly $7 million); specifically, these are reimbursements for residential placements
• Charter school tuition reimbursements are down (statewide by $5.1 million)

The regional districts took a real hit on transportation reimbursement: to encourage towns to regionalize, the state has picked up some of the cost of transporting (for example) all of the Paxton high schoolers to Holden every day. Not anymore.

I don't have the numbers for Worcester, but I assume that Brian Allen will be updating the School Committee about this at their Thursday meeting. (As yet, the agenda isn't posted)