DESE shared more finance data and this is VERY EXCITING!

While I was doing my periodic check of what DESE is sharing on school finance, I discovered that DESE has added to their shared resources a compilation of Net School Spending dating back to 1993, for the state and for districts. 

How fun! 

As a reminder, there are two reasons why your required net school spending could be more than 100%:

• your community spent less than the required net school spending the prior year. That amount then gets added to the next fiscal year.
• your district would be receiving less state funding through chapter 70 than it received in the prior fiscal year, so the state ensures you get the same amount of aid as you received the prior year--hold harmless--and a bit more (now it is $30/pupil minimum in the SOA; it has varied by year otherwise)

I took the statewide required net school spending back to the creation of the foundation budget in 1993 and put it in its own graph:

The first few years of education reform, the state was phasing in the foundation budget over a series of years, scaling up to requiring the 100% of the new foundation level of spending for 2000.

Over those next few years, you can see required net school spending running quickly up over the 100% of foundation due to the above. The Great Recession then socked revenue in 2007, with the federal government pushing funding out to bring school spending back up. 

What I found particularly interesting is the past handful of years, as we see SOA implementation coming in, which pulls enough districts out of hold harmless that you can actually see the state percentage begin to come back down. Those districts are getting real increases, rather than minimum increases, because the foundation budget has increased so much over these past few years. That means they're getting state funding that gets them closer to and then at their foundation budget, but those increases are foundation increases (much more significant funding) rather than minimum increases.
And that migration of districts out of hold harmless will continue will continue.

When you then look at actual spending, we of course know that for years, districts spent well in excess of required minimum spending due to districts finding that the foundation budget wasn't meeting actual needs. While the first few years here above 100%--see above--are due to districts catching up, districts then sustain above minimum, even during the Great Recession.

But look what just started happening recently!

Here's the thing: THIS IS GOOD NEWS! Remember, the foundation budget is increasing substantially. Thus that 100% represents significantly more money from BOTH state AND local sources. 

While required minimum generally required increases in local funding, in any case, we do need to remember that funding at 100% of net school spending as we continue Student Opportunity Act implementation is going to represent increases in funding--in some cases, substantial ones--for districts that were not funding way over what is required. 

Again, we're doing this, Massachusetts!