FY27 Governor's budget proposal

As I noted on Wednesday, Governor Healey has filed her proposed FY27 budget; as this is the second year of the legislative term, this is "House 2," as she files the bill with the House. 

As per usual, I'm keeping a running "account-by-account" for K-12 over here. This year, I honestly started by downloading this page from the state website and then playing with it; you might also find that useful. 

As always, dear readers, I post here for me and for you and in an entirely unofficial capacity. 

On revenue

I think the big story here is one Sam Drysdale at State House News Service caught and covered and then...no one picked up their coverage, as best as I can tell, so it is (sigh) only behind their paywall¹. 

We're using Fair Share--the extra separate revenue stream coming in from the millionaires' tax--to fund the core of services on both transportation and education. The key point on our big education state aid account: 

The fiscal 2027 budget proposes $7.6 billion in Chapter 70 aid to school districts, an increase of $241.8 million, or 3.3%, over fiscal year 2026. Of that total, $550.6 million — nearly all of the funding tied to the sixth and final year of the Student Opportunity Act — would be supported by surtax revenues.

Now, it isn't illegal, but I do question if this was what we intended when we passed this. It certainly isn't how I (personally) thought of what we were doing. And this feels to me a lot like not thinking of the increases in chapter 70 aid as being a core responsibility of government. 

To continue from Sam's coverage: 

Asked whether using surtax dollars to support $550 million of that total signals comfort with using surtax revenue as permanent operating support for school aid — something supporters of the ballot question initially downplayed — Gorzkowicz pointed to the scale of the SOA, which predated the surtax. 

Since Healey took office, the administration has overseen $1.6 billion in Student Opportunity Act spending, with total SOA investments reaching roughly $2.3 billion over the law's six years — up from the $1.5 million originally intended in 2019. 

Beyond Chapter 70, the fiscal 2027 budget directs an additional $240.2 million in surtax funds to K-12 education, including $198 million to continue universal free school meals, $25 million for literacy resources and $6 million for mental health systems and wraparound supports.

I'll just note here: I also loathe Fair Share being used for earmarks. Don't fritter it away.

 So now to proposed allocations; first Chapter 70:

Yes, FY27 is the final year of the implementation of the Student Opportunity Act, and yes, the proposed budget does fully implement the Student Opportunity Act with the final 1/6 to full implementation being included. Remember, the rates that were written into the SOA (which included actual dollar amounts!) won't match, because rates have also been subject to the inflation rate in the foundation budget over implementation.²

The thing that I think matters the most about this is remembering and planning for--to whatever extent that is possible--this being the final year that increases in the foundation budget and in foundation aid, particularly in the districts that have been seeing significant ones, will no longer be coming. I know I have said this over and over, but for districts like Worcester, the increases through SOA being what covers the inflationary increases are ending with FY27.³

The nitty-gritty which DESE covers here: the foundation budget is based on a 2.67% increase for all categories save benefits, which is increased by 8.29%. A useful exercise: compare these to the projected increases in your local district budget. If the state numbers are lower than a level service budget is for you, the foundation budget is not keeping up with cost increases.

The foundation budget is at ground an enrollment based formula, and the foundation enrollment decreased by 14,685 students since last year. Similarly, the low income count is 400,805, compared to 419,861 in FY2026. While these got covered as being caused by ICE fears--and I am not saying it is not!--DESE notes that foundation enrollment decreased for 236 districts, while 81 districts experienced enrollment increases, and the decreases were not all where we see concentrations of immigrant students or families. Again, that doesn't mean that isn't why, but I do think we also have to think about things like how much it costs to live in Massachusetts, too. 

Note again that this may mean that districts could be seeing increases that are LESS THAN EXPECTED but NOT that they are getting LESS ACTUAL AID. This budget does fund hold harmless aid--it's $268M in this account this year⁴--and the Governor has also set the minimum per pupil increase at $75 per pupil.⁴ 

We are spending more on hold harmless than we are on increasing chapter 70 aid. That should concern us all, as hold harmless is not related to the needs of students in a district or to community ability to pay.

Other K-12 allocations: 

Circuit breaker: a $167M increase to $652.6M! I haven't as yet heard how this year's is tracking, but this makes me think that FY26 is coming in as underfunded (I should check the supplemental to see if they put more in); it is definitely an indicator of how we're seeing costs for special education rise.

Charter school reimbursement: $200M. DESE notes "This appropriation level is expected to meet the 100% requirement when tuition assessments are updated to reflect actual enrollments and district spending levels." We shall see. There haven't been major expansions recently, so increases would be straight enrollment at current chartered levels plus inflation. 

Rural aid sees at $8M increase over current to $20M. I think that concern is being heard, though yes, I know it isn't the $60M requested.

Meals reimbursement is up to $198M, which is finally approaching what they're actually spending. Remember, districts are now required to provide lunch for free, so if this doesn't get appropriate reimbursement, it is local districts that are on the hook for costs. 

Regional transportation reimbursement, which again is in two lines, because some of it is (sigh) coming from Fair Share, adds up to $119M. That one's a reimbursement, and it is also a lot more stable and able to be projected than circuit breaker is. 

Homeless student transportation is in at $35M, which is up from $28.6M. I wonder how close that puts it to full funding. 

METCO is level funded from last year's budget at $29M, but that puts it a little under a million under FY26 projected, due to supplemental midyear funding. 

Student assessment is barely seeing an increase, so it isn't clear to me how anyone is funding any shifts there. 

Those are what I would call the big ones, but certainly take a look at the spreadsheet, and let me know if you have questions! 

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¹TO BE CLEAR: I in no way resent SHNS's paywall; they do excellent coverage. I just wish more news organizations that I KNOW subscribe to them would actually USE their articles on things like this! IT MATTERS!
²Golly, if only we hadn't had a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic that killed millions of people and incidentally blew the doors off the inflation rate, imagine where we'd be!
³And to the above footnote's point: it makes me very sad when I think about what we could have done with these increases were they able to be actual increases.
⁴Top recipients of hold harmless: Boston ($25M); Franklin ($16.9M); Mansfield ($10.9m); Denise, I promise I will make you a new chart soon.
⁴Possibly interesting side note: Chelsea Public Schools, which has of course been in the news due to their drop in enrollment, is increasing $89/pupil with foundation aid. If, as usually happens, the Legislature increases the minimum per pupil to something over that, Chelsea would receive aid over foundation aid, and in the final year of SOA implementation. There are only a few districts that is true of, and Chelsea is the only city.