Oh, ok

I haven't posted here about Worcester and May and Hammond last Monday, as I've said plenty elsewhere it's more relevant, but on a general note, let's first say that if you're going to speak or write about it, you should be sure you've reviewed this extensive thread by Sam Bishop:
as well as Bill Shaner's bonus "Worcesteria" this week.
That would have been useful in informing what Nick Kotsopoulos wrote in his column today.

Partway through, though, Nick heads over into what is very much my universe:

The argument being made for defunding the Police Department is that its money could be put to better use, such as for the public schools. On more than a few times, those who addressed the council talked about how the public school budget has been slashed.
Mind you, the recommended School Department budget for next fiscal year is $388.45 million, which is 5.3% or nearly $19 million more than the current year budget. Not what I would exactly call a “slashed” budget.
Not that the Worcester Public Schools can’t use more money; it certainly could. But the fact that the school budget is almost $19 million more than this year doesn’t fit the narrative. At the same time, the recommended $52.7 million Police Department budget is only $254,320 more than this year.

You might remember that I already called this out once this year, when the city presented this framing along with its FY21 budget. I also noted it again when I wrote about the FY21 Worcester Public Schools budget. Let's say this again:

Of the "nearly $19 million more" for FY21 proposed for the Worcester Public Schools, $1.1 million comes from local funds

The vast, vast majority of Worcester Public Schools funding comes from the state. That has been true, that is true, that will continue (we hope!) to be true (as otherwise we're sunk). To continue to perpetuate the misinformation that somehow the city is being generous to the school is, simply wrong.
And one thing that makes me sad about this is that I've talked with Nick in the past and I know he knows how WPS is funded.

Here's how the city is doing over what is the STATE MANDATED REQUIRED MINIMUM:

What this means in plain terms is that the city went up only by the state required minimum, as the increase on transportation was just be eaten by prior years.
(No, transportation isn't covered in required spending, so to stay "even" the city would need to cover both the required spending increase and the contractual transportation increase--which they ddin't do--and that is why some of us would also like to drive some of that funding back to schools.)

The irony in all of this, by the way, is that if the City Council DID go through the process of moving funds from the allocation to police in the schools, it wouldn't increase the Worcester Public Schools' budget at all.

It would just mean we could spend that money on something else.