Justice delayed is justice denied

MassBudget released their long-awaited update to "Cutting Class," the report that gave numbers to our original sense that the foundation budget wasn't adequately supporting public education in Massachusetts. The report is entitled "Building an Education System That Works for Everyone: Funding Reforms to Help All Our Children Thrive" (and if I have a complaint about it, it's that the title is way too long; I've already mentally dubbed it "Cutting Class 2: Here's Hoping We Don't Need a 3.")

Some days, it's hard not to be disheartened by working on this. Yesterday, when I clicked open the report and saw the updated cost gap graph--the original of which I've seen, used, talked about often enough that I have it clear in my mind--was one of those times:

Here's the 2011 version:

In seven years, we've increased the gaps by half a billion dollars.

I think you can boil the message of the report down to this quote from the first page:

While there has been a growing consensus about the shortcomings of the existing school funding system, progress on fixing it has been elusive. While our economy is now years into a recovery, with economic conditions as good as they have been in decades, we have not seen significant new investments in our schools that would help them provide all children in the Commonwealth with real opportunity to succeed.

 Here's what the gap in meeting adequate spending looks like for the lowest wealth districts:

Statewide, thus, the lowest wealth districts, which have some of the neediest kids and some of the highest concentrations of them, have only a bit over two thirds of the teachers that they're supposed to have in the classroom. MassBudget reports that of the 322 districts in the state, "146 spend less on regular education teachers than the formula calls for and 254 districts spend less on materials and technology."

And we're supposed to be shifting to greater uses of technology.

At the same time, we know districts that can have been making up the difference with local funds: 

In 2016-2017, districts spent $2.46B (23.3 percent) more than their requirement across the state, with the median district spending 29 percent more. This pattern provides clear evidence that district decision-makers find the current funding amounts in the foundation budget inadequate to meet the needs of their schools.

In other words, local municipalities are deciding on their own to raise and spend local revenue on schools, over and above the state's calculation, because the state's calculation isn't enough.

In direct contrast to the House's contention that more research is needed for implementation, MassBudget went ahead and modeled implementation; after all, check the notes: they have done reams of research on what works for low income students. They offer phased in implementation over five years, with a option for "everyone gets some," which, again, is not constitutionally required.
While I have not yet had time to play with the spreadsheet on how this works district by district, I plan to and you should.
And I hope the conference committee is.