State aid for whom?

You may have seen the article in today's Telegram and Gazette regarding state aid to schools, putting forward the notion that the distribution of aid isn't fair because it isn't equal. This is based on two misunderstandings:

1. It costs the same to educate every child in the Commonwealth. FALSE. It does not cost as much to educate, for example, a child who has no special needs as it does a child who does. The same is true of a child whose first language is something other than English, who may not have received education prior to kindergarten, who may be low income. It simply costs more to educate any child who needs extra services. What communities have more children who meet those profiles? The cities, like Worcester.
2. Communities that support education are being "punished" by the state by getting lower state aid. FALSE. The state calculates a community's ability--not willingness--to pay for education. That is the foundation formula, based half on property taxes and half on income. If a community then chooses to pay over and above that (as do many communities, Northboro-Southboro among them), they are free to do so. The state does not take that into consideration.

Now, is the amount communities are given in aid adequate? Probably not. Thus the need for an adequacy study.