Thank you to everyone who joined us across the state last night in Malden, Fitchburg, and New Bedford. We had a total of 47 districts (FORTY-SEVEN!) represented to raise awareness regarding the inequities in the state’s educational funding formula.
We continue to hope that these forums, and other conversations, will bring attention to the need to overhaul Massachusetts’ public education funding formula for the first time in 25 years. We look forward to working together to revamp the school aid formula to address inequities across the state.
These events and future efforts were aimed at educating the public and our many state and local officials about the substantive challenges facing our school districts. We believe that addressing these issues will require widespread understanding of the problems school districts are confronting and a thorough appreciation of the urgency in finding solutions.
The Foundation Budget Review Commission report came out four years ago, said Fall River Superintendent Dr. Matt Malone. “The time has come for us to make those hard decisions,” he said. And it’s not just about kids in traditional public schools, he said, stressing that regional vocational-technical schools and charter schools will benefit from changes in the formula, too.
“We’re all in this together,” he said.
“We’re not in this because we want the money, we’re in this because we care about kids,” Malone said.
“We’ve been living on a fixed income since 1993, and that fixed income is not working,” said Chelsea Superintendent Mary Bourque. “This is not a sustainable model for funding school systems in our state.”
“This is about education, this is about what we want for our kids,” said Brockton Superintendent Kathleen Smith. “The time is right to make sure that every child has equal opportunity to an equitable education.”
Reflecting on last night’s forums, M.A.S.S. Executive Director Thomas Scott encourages everyone to think about resolving the disparity in school funding by paying attention to where the changes need to take place, what additional resources our school’s need, and how to think about education going forward to best prepare our students in the years ahead.
News Article About the Forums: Superintendents spotlight ed funding formula flaws
We are happy to share the power point presentations from the January 8th Forums. They will be available HERE. To get updates on additional forums, conversations and other initiatives in relation to #ProjectEquity please visit www.massupt.org/massforums2019 and enter your email at the bottom. You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter.