Senate passes a DESE funding commission

So this is in interesting one! 

The Senate budget passed at the end of last week includes amendment 665 proposed by Senator Lewis which funds (at $200K) a DESE study to report back by June 2026, which is, fascinatingly, largely contribution side in what it proposes to study. I'll include the full language below, but the list is:

• target local contribution*
• local contribution as it impacts other local services
• the 59/41 split (that's the local/state split)
• wealth and income as the measurements of ability to contribution
• the 82.5% cap on the required contribution towards foundation
• minimum aid
• proposition 2 1/2 (that's sec. 21C of chapter 59)
• other ways of measuring ability to contribute

Plus also: 

• changes to local required contribution caps possibly by establishing tiers
• change to statewide target local contribution
• declining enrollment as impacting target contributions
• rural and regional district challenges
• what it would look like if changes were phased in over years

The Department under this would be required to hold no fewer than four hearings across the state and to post a draft of the report before finalizing it.

What's particularly genius about this is it doesn't have one of those exhaustive lists of every group and their brother appointing someone, which quickly creates a cast of thousands and frequently means the names, rather than the geeks** who get it, are at the table. 

It would also be reporting back, of course, just as the final fiscal year of SOA phase in is starting, giving the state then the budget season to be ready to start the next phase of funding reform (right?).

It of course is not in the House budget, so this goes to conference committee.

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The full amendment reads:

“provided further, that not less than $200,000 shall be expended for the department to study and make recommendations to improve the adequacy and equitability of the formula to determine a municipality’s target local contribution and required local contribution, as those terms are defined in section 2 of chapter 70 of the general laws; provided further, that said study and recommendations shall include, but not be limited to: (i) the adequacy and equity of the methodology used to determine a municipality’s target local contribution and required local contribution as a measure of a municipality’s ability to contribute to its foundation budget; (ii) the impact of local contributions to pre-kindergarten through grade 12, inclusive, education on  municipalities’ ability to maintain and fund adequate levels of municipal services, including aggregate trends in municipal spending on education and non-educational services and primary drivers of such trends; (iii) the impact of the fixed 59 per cent local share of the statewide foundation budget on the calculation of combined effort yield for each municipality; (iv) the extent to which the wealth and income measures in the formula accurately and fairly determine a municipality's ability to contribute to its foundation budget costs; (v) the impact of the growing number of municipalities that are subject to the 82.5 per cent maximum local required contribution cap; (vi) the number of municipalities receiving minimum per pupil aid and the impact of such aid on those municipalities; (vii) the impact of section 21C of chapter 59 of the General Laws on municipalities and their ability to make their required local contributions; and (viii) potential additional methods of measuring a municipality’s ability to contribute to its share of education funding; provided further, that the department shall identify the implications of changes to the existing mechanisms that determine municipal contributions and the total state target local contribution including, but not limited to: (a) changes to maximum local required contribution caps, including the establishment of different maximum local required contribution tiers based on a municipality’s fiscal capacity relative to their foundation budget; (b) changes to the total statewide target local contribution; (c) impacts of declining enrollments on state and municipal contribution targets since the adoption of the aggregate wealth model; (d) changes that would address challenges that are unique to rural and regional districts; and (e) to the extent feasible, what the potential impacts of such changes would be if phased in over multiple years; provided further, that the department shall work in collaboration with the division of local services to inform its analysis of existing and potential modifications to local contribution requirements; provided further, that the department shall solicit public input and hold not less than 4 public hearings in different geographic areas of the commonwealth; provided further, that the department shall post a draft report and hold a public hearing and solicit public comment on said draft report; provided further, that not later than June 30, 2026, the department shall submit its final report to the joint committee on education and the house and senate committees on ways and means, which shall include recommendations for regulatory and legislative changes”.

*Lost in the terminology? It's all covered in 70 on 70, the latest round of which (MASC's recording) is here. 

**said with affection and respect for said geeks, of course