Of sacred cows and $660,000

Per the City Manager's budget presentation last night, I should point out that both the city and the state have fully funded the foundation budget for the Worcester Public Schools for FY12.
This is a good thing. It's an incredibly difficult year to keep to commitments, and not having to create the insane budgetary circumstances being faced by school districts in other states is a great relief.
I've already this morning caught a bit of talk of "sacred cows" and some question about why education emerges unscathed (or at least uncut) in what are certainly harrowing budget times. That was the point of creating the foundation formula in Massachusetts: that education would be funded at a minimal level (at least) every year. Faced with a suit by several communities, including Worcester, the courts decided that education would be set aside as an area that would be funded at a minimum level always. As a response to that suit, the Legislature created the foundation formula, by which education cannot be cut below a legally mandated minimum (and, in the process, gave the state a major role in funding education, particularly in urban areas; recall that less that 1/3 of the schools funding comes from the city in Worcester).
In the presentation of the City Manager last night, he touted the $660,000 over foundation the Worcester Public School budget is. This isn't new money: this is the same $660,000 that the city has given the schools the past several years. $130,000 is from the city cable contract, as been the case for several years. The remaining $540,000 is from the (oft-mentioned) Medicaid reimbursement (you might remember that the schools deliver significantly more services by dollar amount; this is the city "giveback"); of that, $400,000 goes back to 1996.

(as I know some are looking at percentages: that's 0.002% over foundation)