Highlighting Mass Budget's note on the House budget and adding one of my own

Mass Budget and Policy Center sent out a statement last week on the House budget. It says, in part, this on K-12 education:

...while we are on track with the stipulations of the 2019 Student Opportunity Act (SOA), the House budget proposal does not address the unexpected and historically high levels of inflation in recent years, nor did it adopt amendments to address or study the issue in the year ahead. Until it is addressed, the failure to fully adjust education aid to high inflation will continue to depress the value of K-12 aid because support each year is built on the prior year’s amount. 

If the Senate doesn't address inflation in their budget (filed tomorrow with amendments due by Friday), we will never get that funding back.

To that I would add: the state--the Governor and the Legislature--are through their own policy choices working against the Student Opportunity Act's lifting of districts out of hold harmless. The $60 per pupil minimum increase compounded by (should it also pass the Senate) the $104 increase this year pushes districts back further from escaping hold harmless and getting foundation aid increases. The inflation rate this year pushed what were 195 districts receiving foundation aid back to only 106. 

This is maddening.