On the House FY24 budget

First, mea culpa for essentially sitting out all of the House budget. I was scrambling when it came out, and I just never caught up. 

With the Senate budget due out the week after next (why does it feel like no one ever knows this for sure?), let me walk through what the House did, however.

Do please note that my K-12 education account by account spreadsheet is up to date through the House passage of the budget, meaning it also incorporates the amendments. Because the House passes amendments in a way that is designed to be opaque, I waited for the Legislature to sort them out before I tried to post. That is now up to date. 

On the big stuff particularly in what differs from the Governor's budget:

• Yes, the House fully funds year three implementation of the Student Opportunity Act.
  HOWEVER, the House also (in a separate line) adds an additional $30/pupil minimum increase, bringing it to $60/pupil, which I know was asked for, and I'm sure many are going to see as the House doing a favor to districts. It's a problem, though. It is in no way tied to need (plenty of those dollars will go to districts that have funding capacity and relatively low needs student populations). It will also create a larger hole of hold harmless funding next year (this additional funding does get added to that), pushing some districts that were on the cusp of getting out of hold harmless funding and minimum increases back into it, rather than getting them out into foundation aid. 
  (I'm sure I've lost some of you, and I should write more on this.)
  (For some reason, the House version is $280K less than the Governor's version, and I don't know why.)
  
  
• BIG DIFFERENCE #1 from the Governor's budget: The House budget includes $161M in the budget for free school lunch reimbursement for districts. The Governor, you might remember, put this into a supplemental budget. DESE CFO Bill Bell last week said there's some question as to if the amount is sufficient, but the intent is there for free lunch for all in all districts. Some districts (like Worcester) are of course still funding by the community eligibility provision of USDA. 
  There are also two studies on school lunch in the outside sections, one to study school food waste, and one to study nutritional standards for school lunch. 
  
  
• BIG DIFFERENCE #2 from the Governor's budget: The House budget lifts the cap on the Mass School Building Authority to $1.1B (this is in an outside section, so I initially missed it). THIS IS A BIG DEAL (and, as you might remember, something some of us asked for in public testimony). It also then ties increases annually to increases in sales tax revenue, capping at 4.5%
  (Nothing on accelerated repair; nothing on inflation)
  
  
• Circuit breaker, which this coming year is going to be reimbursing for that 14% increase in out of district tuition, is funded at $506M, up from the Governor's budget of $503M. Is this enough? It is intended to be, but we'll see. And of course districts still have to fund it this and and THEN get reimbursed. 
  
  
• House Ways and Means submitted charter school reimbursement at $13M less than the Governor's budget did at $230M. The House budget passed brings it up about $1.5M. In all cases, this was said to be fully funded; as there haven't been many charter school enrollment increases, this would largely be funding simply the growth in charter tuition caused by the Student Opportunity Act being implemented. 
  
  
• Regional transportation reimbursement, which the Governor's budget funded at $97M, the House funded at $107M, which is seen as 100% reimbursement. There is no reimbursement for municipal districts. 
  
  
• The House budget establishes a clean energy infrastructure fund of $100M for schools, which would be administered by the Department. 
  
  
• MCAS continues to be funded at $32M.
  
  
• METCO overall is up a bit over $2M from the Governor's budget, to $31M.
  
  
• Early college, funded at $13M by the Governor, passed at $15M. 
  
  
• Rural aid, which the Governor funded at $7.5M, the House passed at $10M. 
  
  
• The Governor had zeroed out the extended learning line, but the House puts it back at $4.8M.

• The civics education line kicks $100K for an anti-racism initiative and $500K for the USS Constitution museum into the line, which already includes funding for the JFK Museum and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, which now totals $2.1M.

• The Governor submitted the safe and supportive schools line at $1.6M; the House budget passed has $640K. 
  
  
• The Governor's budget funded the alternative assessment consortium (MCIEA) at $550K; the House did not fund it. 
  
  
• For those who wonder every year about the mystery of the JYK Networks (account 7061-9406, billed as "college and career readiness"), their line is back to funded (it was not in the Governor's budget) at $875K. 
  
  
• The 21st century ($5M) and civics project ($1.5M) trust fund lines are funded as in the Governor's budget, but the genocide education trust fund, funded by the Governor at $1.5M, was funded at $500K during the amendment process (the House Ways and Means budget had not funded it at all). The House budget does not fund the STEM Pipeline fund, which the Governor's budget funded at $1.7M.