Lowell Sun today, in coverage that the city surprised the schools with the information that they're getting $4M less than they'd planned:
In addition to Chapter 70 funding, every year, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education publishes the net school spending requirement for school districts, which sets the adequate funding for a school and comes from the local municipality.
DESE recommends municipalities give districts a cash amount of about 22% of their net school spending amount. Fiscal 2025’s net school spending for Lowell was $64.9 million, and 22% of that was $14 million, which the city level funded.
The fiscal 2026 amount is $68.9 million, of which 22% would be $15 million. Instead, the city has budgeted a cash amount of $10 million, which brought the district’s proposed school budget to $271,489,114.
Emphasis mine
That isn't a thing. DESE doesn't recommend that. I don't even know where that would come from. It's also nonsensical, because how much funding local districts get from their communities is first, about the municipal wealth formula, and second, a matter of local discretion for anything over.
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