$350M for what?

 Of all of the various things to come out as part of the conference committee budget, I am most puzzled--and pretty irritated--by this:

SECTION 103: Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the comptroller shall transfer $350,000 from the General Fund to the Student Opportunity Act Investment Fund, established in section 35RRR of chapter 10 of the General Laws. Said transfer shall be made by the comptroller in accordance with a transfer schedule to be developed by the comptroller after consulting with the secretary of education, the secretary of administration and finance and the state treasurer.

That's setting aside $350M from this year's budget for the Student Opportunity Act...but not spending it. It's "in case" money.

Now, the argument that one should "save, in case" is a potent one, but the operational function of the government is primary. The government exists to do its job, which, constitutionally in Massachusetts, includes public education. And, likewise, constitutionally, that is currently underfunded until the SOA is fully funded.

Stashing $350M away in fears--I assume?--that the state won't have the funding to meet responsibilities in future years misses that we have been having headlines like this for months:

And that's without anyone touching any of the federal aid that's coming through to the state, incidentally. And these are in the months COMING OUT OF THE PANDEMIC!

It also is responding as if the state has met all of its responsibilities for this year. Mea culpa for not pointing this out before, but the Student Opportunity Act ties implementation of the circuit breaker and the charter reimbursement changes to SPECIFIC FISCAL YEARS, as so:

There was no implementation of SOA at all last year.

This year, they've implemented 25% of the transportation on the circuit breaker and 75% of the charter reimbursement; in other words, the FY21 levels. It is, though, FY22 they're funding. Despite the "no, really, we're up to date on the SOA implementation" language, we are not up to date. 

As noted yesterday, one could solve one of these with the other:

This budget underfunds our education promises by $50 million.

The Student Opportunity Act committed to closing holes left by charter school tuition & in the special education circuit breaker program this year.

We have the money. But instead, this budget puts it in a trust fund.

— Sonia Chang-Díaz (@SoniaChangDiaz) July 9, 2021