On the Chapter 70 study committee: what they are, or at least SHOULD, talk about

Sorry, I know the first of these public sessions already happened this week. This fall is somehow feeling particularly slammed for me...remember, they also will take electronic submission of testimony at C70PublicComment@mass.gov.
Also, yes, again, this is me posting as me and not in any other capacity.

When I last wrote on this for you, I shared what isn't going to come up in the study commission because it isn't things with which they are charged. 

Note that those are all things about which we should be talking, too! We really cannot ignore how harsh not having SOA increases is going to be on the districts that have been using them to ensure they can maintain services, because inflation isn't keeping up with costs, much as so many other districts have been pushing local increases for the same reason.

In other words: 

INFLATION INFLATION INFLATION

However, again, this study is specifically to study the "municipality's target local contribution and required local contribution" so it's looking at what I think of as the SECOND part of the question: once we have decided what a "minimum adequate per pupil budget" is, where does the money come from? 

Here are some things that I expect to come up, some of which are written right into the study language itself:

Putting Prop 2 1/2 on the table

 Gin Dumcius leads his daily Massterlist email today with "In front of business leaders, Wu takes aim at Prop 2 1⁄2" in which he says this: 

Proposition 2 ½ is considered a “bedrock” of budget cycles throughout Massachusetts cities and towns, due to the limit it places on how much property tax revenue they can collect, as one research group put it earlier this year.

But Boston Mayor Michelle Wu yesterday took a few digs at the law, which was implemented in 1982 after voter approval. The law limits cities and towns to raising no more than 2.5 percent of the assessed value of all taxable property taxes, plus new growth, but they can request an override from voters.

Boston, which has a larger commercial sector than most, has never put an override question on the ballot. But in the pandemic’s aftermath, more communities in other parts of the state are seeking property tax votes, after ballot overrides hit a 30-year low in 2018. Proponents of Prop 2 ½, as it’s often called, say it offers taxpayers predictability, and pleases voters sick of high property taxes.

In Boston's most recent budget, longtime vacant jobs were slashed, and salary savings arose out of delaying a police academy class, Wu said in a sit-down with Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce President Jim Rooney. “We are going to continue keeping that belt cinched as tight as we possibly can,” she said. “Prop 2 ½ is the tightest belt of all.”

"Of the 43 years that that law has been in place, inflation has been, on average, 25% higher every year, above two and a half percent growth,” as health care costs have quickly risen, she added.

When MASSterList later asked whether she believed the state should take a look at Prop 2 ½, and whether it no longer works, Wu said, “Yes.” Asked to elaborate, Wu said it’s part of a larger conversation. “Prop 2 ½  was put in place through significant pressure and advocacy from the business community against municipal governments’ advocacy several decades ago,” she said.

Adam Chapdelaine, the executive director of the Mass. Municipal Association, echoed some of Wu’s comments. “Frankly, the mayor’s comments lined up with some research we’ve been doing recently,” he said. (Stay tuned for more on that, he added.)

“I think Prop 2 ½ is in some ways an ingenious law in that it shifted budgets from being expense-driven to being revenue-driven,” he said, before adding, “I wouldn’t put the thumb up or down. I would say, ‘Look at how it’s working and let’s have a conversation on whether it can work in a different way.’”

In Boston, the city budget, which heavily relies on property taxes, remains “very stable,” Wu said, but the conversation about revenue diversification, in order to maintain the expected level of city services, is needed. Diversification measures have been repeatedly blocked at the State House, but “whether or not anyone wants to have the conversation, we are going to have to have it, because this is a strain on municipal budgets all around the Commonwealth, especially now,” she said.

That Prop 2 1/2 puts communities into a hamster wheel where they cannot keep up with inflationary costs is becoming more and more of a common conversation. I have heard it across the state these past two budget seasons. Wu, of course, commands a much larger platform, so this voice will matter as this continues, I suspect, to snowball.  

McDuffy redux? (or Legal Action? What Legal Action?)

In response to this section of last night's joint meeting in Worcester--

King: potential legal action...any action as yet?
Foley: "districts across the state that are asking the same questions" #FBRC

— Tracy Novick (@TracyNovick) April 25, 2016

--I got some questions today on just what was meant by "legal action."

Note that I am going to elide a whole lot of history here to get to the basic outlines.

Historically, schools in Massachusetts have largely been funded (as schools across the US) by local property taxes. Thus the taxes on property within a town were the source of revenue for schools within that town. That has the result, of course, of towns that have more property wealth having more money available to them to spend on schools, and of schools in different (and sometimes adjoining) towns having schools that look very different.
As a result, there were a series of cases* filed by districts against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts over the 1970's and 80's. These gained some urgency once Proposition 2 1/2, which limited the growth of local taxation to no more than 2 1/2% per year without an override, passed in the state, as that limited the amount that towns could increase their funding of schools (among other services) every year.
Why sue the state?
John Adams!
Yes, (the perpetually quoted by me) Chapter V, Section II of the Massachusetts Constitution explicitly makes education the "duty of legislatures and magistrates" in the state. Magistrates are the town officials; the legislatures meet, as they always have, on Beacon Hill. And Beacon Hill wasn't doing as much as they could to ensure that kids across Massachusetts were getting a good education.
The cases were consolidated into McDuffy v. the Secretary of the Executive Office of Education, and the Supreme Judicial Court decision was handed down in June 1993. Essentially, the districts won: the state was told to make sure that kids across the state were getting an appropriate education:

...the provisions of Part II, c. 5, Section 2, of the Massachusetts Constitution impose an enforceable duty on the magistrates and Legislatures of this Commonwealth to provide education in the public schools for the children there enrolled, whether they be rich or poor and without regard to the fiscal capacity of the community or district in which such children live. It shall be declared also that the constitutional duty is not being currently fulfilled by the Commonwealth. 

The decision is dated June 15; on June 18, the 1993 Education Reform Act was signed into law. While most know it for it (ultimately) being the reason we have the MCAS exam, it also set parameters for the creation of statewide standards of education, and it created the foundation formula that funds K-12 education in Massachusetts.
The foundation formula is progressive in two ways: it allows higher amounts of funding for greater student need, and it requires the state to provide for greater amounts of the funding needed in less wealthy districts.
The state implemented the foundation formula on a seven year rollout, but a number of districts felt that progress wasn't being made quickly enough and that the results weren't bearing out what was required, so another round of lawsuits were filed, which resulted in Hancock v. the Commissioner of Education in 2005. The results of this case were much more mixed, as the SJC found:

The Governor, the Legislature, and the department are well aware that the process of education reform can and must be improved...The amply supported findings of the judge reflect much that remains to be corrected before all children in our Commonwealth are educated. The Legislature may well choose to rely on these findings as it continues to consider efforts to improve public education. Her findings are also a testament to the many educators, teachers, parents, business and community leaders who insist that, until that goal is reached, they will continue to demand improvement and will seek the help of our elected officials to ensure that meaningful reform is ongoing.

"The presumption exists that the Commonwealth will honor its obligations." Bromfield v. Treasurer & Receiver Gen., 390 Mass. 665 , 669 (1983). I am confident that the Commonwealth's commitment to educating its children remains strong, and that the Governor and the Legislature will continue to work expeditiously "to provide a high quality public education to every child." G. L. c. 69, s 1.

The Hancock decision did, however, leave the door open for the districts to come back if, as time went along, the state was not keeping up its end of the bargain.
And that brings us rather neatly to the Foundation Budget Review Commission, which found precisely that. That's why, as I've heard him say multiple times now, Mr. Allen told the joint committee last night:

"we're cutting from a benchmark that's already inadequate" #FBRC #MAEdu @worcesterpublic

— Tracy Novick (@TracyNovick) April 25, 2016

...and the FY16 benchmark is, for Worcester, over $90 million underfunded by the standards of the Foundation Budget Review Commission.
Thus, if the state doesn't come through on action, there is an argument for re-opening Hancock...a McDuffy redux.
And the state handed us the strongest evidence themselves last November, when they issued the Foundation Budget Review Commission's report.


*including Jordan Levy and others v. the Governor, filed by Worcester's mayor Jordan Levy

Notes from the Foundation Budget Review Commission

Just walked in for the Shrewsbury superintendent Joe Sawyer talking about last year's override and class size issues
Query as to how they could have class sizes so high yet still being over foundation: is it teacher salaries?
Teacher salaries average for central MA
Q: percentage that's circuit breaker
enormous
Q: what's driving gap in teacher salary?
unrealistic assumption about teacher salaries, more teachers with master's degrees
Q (which we've heard before) Do we need a full redesign, or do we need a tweak?
circuit breaker is trailing, fees for transportation, athletics
"clearly...the idea around equity is important...combining some of the various sources, around grants, could be important"
Q: change census from once to twice?
fairly stable population, not a lot of effect on us
ELL tend to arrive midyear, has some effect on us
Q: $3.7M override this past year: what about this year?
budget increase of a bit over 3%, "very realistic and modest request"
given funding OPEB, snow and ice control
"even with a very modest request...our town manager's request is below even at that number"
"without additional state support...that's what tends to be causing the unpredictability"

Wachusett is in the house! Julie Kelley, Stacey Jackson
appreciative of having these hearings
"don't just identify a problem, offer a solution"
formula should not go beyond 2% increases of Prop 2 1/2
"strongly supports regionalization"
"alarming inability of towns, especially regionalized towns, to meet their obligations" to fund
1,2,3 towns that aren't able to afford their increases
of increases, half goes to education, and half to town services
in some cases, education is taking up 50,60 or more of the increase in revenue
should have a trigger if much of new revenue is being taken up by education services
Rep. Ferguson comments on compelling data

Rep. Hogan: sped costs don't reflect real costs and real needs.

missed a speaker there

Elaine Rabbitt: Dudley-Charlton regional SC
answer a challenge offered by Rep. Ferguson: was interested in hearing something new and hearing a solution
need change concept of special education and regular education
teachers no longer have students who come in without a backpack of baggage
what our students require is what we need to fund
"at best we can fund having a teacher in the classroom, but we can no longer afford other supports for our students"
Q: foundation formula makes an effort to account for different needs: would you say that there are catagories that we are missing? or is it that the classroom teaching catagory needs to be larger in general?
"the mental health component"
impossible task to think that a teacher can teach to the multiple needs of the classroom in front of them
minimal increases of budgets over past several years
"We have 200 Chromebooks used to test 2000 students"
"these things we are talking about did not even exist in those days"
"they don't have the resources, and more importantly, they don't have the time"
"that's a serious issue that we need to address"
supports have never existed
Q: what do you see as the drivers of that reality?
financial history that we've just been through; parents both working, sometimes multiple jobs
impact of what we're trying to prepare our students better
have children that are physically sick from the stressors we're putting on children around testing
Comments from Peisch is that it would be hard to recommend a substantial increase, as taxes would increase; encourage to think about other sources of revenue
Rabbitt: if we maximize what we provide students now, we'll need to provide less for us later (paraphrase)
"I really just have to challenge you with that"
"As a taxpayer, the best investment I can make is in the future of my community, and that's in education"

Rob Cohane, parent, WPS:
involved in CPPAC: where the money comes from
"I don't necessarily envy you for taking on this challenge"
special education, inflation, health insurance no longer provide services students need
urban challenges: difficult to make up that gap
when 20% of the foundation budget is going to fill in that gap
"who ends up paying for that? It's the students"
parents are paying for photocopiers, parents are paying for copy paper
cost of importing technology into the classroom
"that our children have an equitable chance to compete"
"parents in my community are paying more; it may not be a tax, but we're paying"
circuit breaker doesn't seem to be working: "By the time you get the money, it's two years gone."

Westboro: testimony is very consistent, lacks in the available funding of the information of the education system
is there anything that you haven't heard that you'd like to?
part of your charge is to look at how we prepare our students for testing and for their future
Do a zero based review? What kind of content and skills do we expect our graduating seniors to have? Is that affordable?
"then we can put together a formula that provides" equitably

Ralph Hicks: past 11 years have been a superintendent
"would really like to see us live up to Horace Mann and our forefathers"
Ashburnham-Westminster district
fully recognize that local aid has taken a hit
"we need to be able to fund education if we aer to maintain our leadership position, not only in the United States, but in the world"
trying to bargain a GIC-like plan with our employees, which would make our increase 5.8%, but when the inflationary increase is only 1.5%, we have a problem
about $400,000 to put towards next year
last override that passed was in 2004
"going to outline what teaching positions we need to cut"
Q: talk about mental health
runs through very small numbers of staff available
"problems kids come in with today are insurmountable"
most schools do not have the counselors that they need
one town might be willing to give us more, but because of the way that the regional agreement work we cannot take it
Q: is it not a matter for the regional school district agreement for different levels?
the way it's written right now, we're using the statutory method
have written a new regional agreement, hope to have it passed
Q: has talked about going to SC with cuts on Tuesday? Could we get those?
will email them
Q: changes in enrollment?
having a slight upswing, we were down for awhile
"if you build it, they will come" built a new school, young families saw a new elementary school
have increased school choice numbers

Richard Bedard: school business manager in Millbury
health insurance and retirees health insurance
have worked for many years to bring down the cost of health insurance
Millbury has bid health care to one provider, have increased employee costs, copays
health care costs have decreased
"even with those decreases, the foundation budget allocation is still low"
a $2.4M shortfall on a $22M budget
spending 2 1/2 times the foundation allocation
retirees health insurance only included in NSS if they checked it off in 1993
that needs to change; phase in a level playing field
would put Millbury closer to the state average
foundation budget plus circuit breaker is only 60% of our special education costs

Tyler Keenan, Leicester School Committee
22 of 32 years have had increases more than 2 1/2
"real decline in spending power over time"
override votes are frequent, but don't pass
tuition of special education programs
rate increases tied solely with inflation are not accurate
fewer students=/=fewer teachers
but a smaller district it's necessary for things like AP if they are to be offered
size of district and challenges faced by smaller districts as opposed to larger districts
shouldn't have a model that's "overfit"
look at what districts are actually spending, not just what the foundation budget calls for

Mendon-Upton Regional
have a constant fear that we won't be able to keep up
$25 per pupil increase $59,000 per year for M-U
"doesn't even cover the average cost for an out-of-district placement"
"money I cannot spend in other critical areas"
"critical areas where I feel the promise is not being kept"
starting us in a deficit for FY16
regional transportation reimbursement "doesn't come close" to actual costs
try to share costs with area, but are a remote district
"have made a tremendous investment in technology" $1M this year: $410 per student
"do our best to do what we should be doing: equipping our children to be ready for the 21st century and beyond"
should add technology to foundation budget
93% and 97% residental communities
"district limit to the tax ability of my communities"
"cycle of necessary overrides every 3 to 5 years will continue" unless something changes
Q: data or suggestions about how much technology allocation should be?
$400 per student this year, though some of that is a one-time expense
Committee would be interested in suggestions on this one

Adam Gaudette from Spencer: part of two regional school districts
foundation budget is well-intended
mandated local contribution is devestating to local municipal services
still haven't recovered from the economic downturn
tax receipts and local aid both down
22% where we were in 2008 on local aid
"have done everything possible" to save money
Town Hall only 3 days a week, cut recreation dept, cut salaries in fire and police
not only eliminating jobs, eliminating services on town side
"making a plea to not only look at foundation budget, but to look at MLC rates"
suggest matching 2 1/2 percent

and then there was a long part where Worcester spoke...Testimony of Superintendent Boone, of myself, of Mayor Petty, and letter submitted jointly by Superintendent Boone, Mayor Petty, and City Manager Augustus.
Two tweets regarding questions taken by Superintendent Boone: 

One: @SenPatJehlen inquiring on what we can learn of the needs of schools though successful turnarounds. #FBRC
— Tracy Novick (@TracyNovick) February 28, 2015

Two: @SoniaChangDiaz noting that #FBRC has been getting efficiencies & effective spending work all along, woven in.
— Tracy Novick (@TracyNovick) February 28, 2015

On that last: while those testifying may not have labeled them as "efficiecies," anytime someone has said "We did this to save money," they were offering those examples. Thanks to Senator Chang-Diaz for noting this.

Brian Lewis, parent WPS
UMass Med committed to having a robust and diverse workforce
need for successful public schools to support that
"if our public schools do not have resources for simply things like supplies...we cannot expect them to meet the needs of those programs"
would urge commission to think about how it is allocated and supplied

sorry I missed who this is...from Leominster
Look at OPEB and health insurance for retirees
should have a whole commission on OPEB alone, because it is so technical
properly to recognize cost in year it's incurred
once OPEB fully funded then can be freed up to deal with other services
"grossly underestimates, especially on the OPEB side, the costs"
method of paying for right now is the most inefficient, pay as you go
if you pay as incurred, rather than pay as you go, better later
"that's the most cost inefficiency way of paying for it"
call on them to "start recognizing OPEB in the foundation budget"
wanted to bring that aspect of the fringe benefits, for you to become leaders in this issue

member, Acton-Boxborough SC
echo a lot of what was said today
"a lot of different areas that could use modernization"
assumed special education enrollment based on a number of factors
use numbers "truly reflective of what the enrollment is"
"I'd like to ask you to be bold in moderizing education in Massachusetts"
"bold action in adverse times"
"there's a statue that stands in Concord, Lexington, Acton and elsewhere...it's your turn"

Westborough finance committee
bascially the only thing we get is to pay our insurance; nothing towards teaching, or anything else

Councilors on the budget

Economou
thanks for hearing what the education committee have heard and for F&O
"worked together, have a better understanding of the school budget"
"we're all moving in the same direction"
"working together"
Rushton
"there was a time a few years ago where we were talking $24M in cuts"
"a stable budget"
"shows where we're going in our future, with the one city approach"
glad to see $1.1M towards the schools
"any year you take off is a year in the life of our children"
references Prop 2 1/2...enrichments were all stripped away
"we're not in the boat"
"devil is always in the details"
"always enjoy talking with Mr. Zidelis about these issues, because he doesn't sugarcoat it, but he tries to get it done"
Toomey
"what a difference the budget sessions"
greater insight to school and council
"thrilled and most grateful for what has been preserved"
"still nothing to celebrate"
future business in city
motion to refer budget to budget committee, to begin next week

Remembering E. Jay Tierney

who was on the committee from 1980-90
They voted in John Durkin
maintained the school district during Prop 2 1/2
"what a key force he was"

Ed Reform at 17: O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan (who was in the legislature at the time): references Mark Roosevelt "who everyone loved to hate"
references Reville who worked "to write it"
"the politics were nasty at that time with regards to funding"
"coming off of Prop 2 1/2...we were talking about overrides, a sales tax...a real skittishness because you have to pay for it"
"what I found was that everyone wanted to give out the money, but no one wanted to deal with the accountability"
"my question is 'what's wrong with that'"
"funding was important, coming off of Prop 2 1/2"
"setting statewide standards for schools and for districts...I had a lot of my friends who were part of the education establishment who" didn't like that
"I understand that the status quo is difficult..the money was not coming forward unless the accountability was in there"
(this misses the gap between the original law, which called for a comprehensive assessment system, and the MCAS, which came in for 1999, which was anything but. The major pushback by teachers, parents, and others dates from the latter.)
``we watered that down...the drumbeat of that school was the principal..I think we missed the boat on that, and that's an important factor"
"we had a chance of reform special education..that's where money is being taken out of the system...far too many kids...the legal language" allows too many kids in special ed (he thinks)
(that's interesting...who is he going to take out of special ed?)
accountability needs to be tweaked
"it's not too much for the taxpayer to say 'here's your money, here's what you're getting for it'"