February Board of Ed: FY20

notes on budget
Riley says Governor's budget "meets the recommendation of the foundation budget review commission"
it does not; no voke increase in sped
Bell introduces
O'Donnell: notes there is the budget and a funding bill
Ch.70 is a 4.1% increase over prior year ($200.3M increase)
Governor's bill codifies how running local contribution requirements and cleans up sections of chapter that are no longer in effect
"it's a pretty big moment"
sped: goal of 3x statewide foundation budget per pupil
benefits: goal based on GIC updated annually
economically disadvantaged: 1-5 constant and increasing only by inflation; 6-10 more progressive, wider gap
high needs concentration: decile 9 or 10 plus 20% or more EL students
"would be about $100M more over the phase in period"
then more differentiation
did try to distribute costs across more categories functionally
"trying to get at some staffing assumptions that we thought made sense" particuarly in guidance and staff support
economically disadvantaged matching with same state services for qualification
Peyser comments that it is relative share not total number (so I think he's saying it doesn't matter as much?)
early college: new rate $1050 higher than high school rate
EL : differentiated by grade span, higher funding for later grades; also all who meet or exceed exit requirements are no longer counted in the foundation budget
"we do that really to try to improve equity" as districts are counting students differently
statewide, reduces by about 6100 students
new goal for gudiance and psych starting in FY21
assumed in-district special ed to 4% for all
vocational schools don't have higher need special ed students, so do not include change to voke to 5%
$1B in current dollars; increase of $3.3B by 2026
aggregate wealth model in effect; 100% gap reduction; combined effort yield greater than 175% of foundation require local contributions set at not less than 82.5%

charter reimbursement: enrollment growth over a five year period, not just one year
"do you have more students going to charters now than you did five years ago"
Wulfson: trying to target the aid to where it was intended to be "you had a new school opening, or you had a school growing"
West refers to this as "correcting the treatment of enrollment"
Peyser: current method takes inflation into account
one reason that this has not been fully funded with respect to inflation
McKenna: it has not been fully funded
Wulfson: "the past couple of years, we haven't even funded the first year, never mind the others"
six years "just was very difficult for districts to plan for"
Peyser said it was hard to plan for the drop from 100% to 25% (I think most districts assumed they weren't getting the 25% so...?)
Boston, couple of Martha's Vineyard districts getting "supplemental aid": $6M high charter tutition costs and low Ch. 70
charter tutition in excess of 9% of NSS
this argues a broken understanding of why the state funds some districts more than others
facilities tuition up to $938/pupil tied to inflation

circuit breaker: $323M in House 1; $4.5M increase, but is tied to Dept. of Developmental Services
70% reimbursement
regional transporation level funded, would be 76%
homless student reimbursement 37%
non-resident vocational transportation 6%

new trust funds for low performing schools ($50M) and school safety ($30M)

increasing retained revenue for educator licensure
"would fully appropriate the revenue for a year"
adult basic eduation increased by $4.27M (outside earmarks) includes more workforce development  and adult basic education
assessment and curriculum maintains FY19 (higher, post supplemental budget) rate

McKenna notes that there had been funding accompanying civics implementation
fund is approved by there is no allocation
don't talk enough about the achievement gap: summer learning, 4 year olds, English learners, kids not getting what they should be doing
"I get concerned, like this morning we spent most of our time talking about charter schools...this achievement gap, and how are we focusing our money on that"
don't hear talking about access for four year olds, I don't hear about summer learning

Stewart asks about joint meeting with Higher Ed?
Sagan: tried, were unable to coordinate a date

Bell resources for English learners rolling forward from last year's level