While Gov. Charlie Baker is touting his proposed $118.6 million increase in education as a "significant investment," local school officials are waiting to find out how much money will actually be distributed to the districts.
School officials are wary as district budgets also hinge on state payments for special education and regional transportation. Baker is proposing about $1.1 billion in unrestricted local aid and $4.865 billion in aid to K-12 schools. The increase of $37.2 million, or 3.5 percent, matches up with the expected growth rate in state tax collections.
Northborough-Southborough Superintendent Christine Johnson started the discussion with the district's towns about the projected local aid numbers on Wednesday.
"I am hopeful," she said.
Johnson has not seen the cherry sheets for the budgets, which reflect realistic budget estimates for all of the different areas where the district gets state funding. She said the district also relies on the circuit breaker (special education) and regional transportation money, which come as reimbursements once a district spends the money, and those funding levels are unclear.
Jean Bertschmann, chairwoman of the Hopkinton School Committee, said all of the money designated as local aid gets incorporated into the town's overall budget. The biggest challenge for her district is a potential drop in the circuit breaker reimbursement, which was decreased from 75 percent to 65 percent.
"We are expecting 65 percent for fiscal year '19 as well," she said.
The Hopkinton special education costs will rise $827,975, approximately 2 percent, according to budget data, but not all of the increase is because of service covered by the circuit breaker reimbursements. Bertschmann said any increase in local aid is welcome.
Like most school officials, Johnson is waiting to see how the amount is distributed to each town and city.
"I'll get excited when I see the money," she said.
Baker proposed a $118.6 million boost in education money, a 2.5 percent increase. This amount also includes $15 million in additional aid for school districts with an influx in hurricane evacuees from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Island and $24.3 million that will be directed towards addressing rising costs of health care for retirees, a sum Baker has characterized as a "significant investment."
Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, a Jamaica Plain Democrat, said Baker's proposed increase in aid to local school districts – known as Chapter 70 aid – in next year's budget is "just plain inadequate for the job."
"As an acclaimed manager, the governor should know that," Chang-Diaz said. "I'm certain the governor is aware of the economic concept of inflation – and his proposal barely keeps up with health care inflation alone. In fact, his budget proposal would leave K-12 funding down more than 5 percent since 2002, when adjusted for inflation. That means more cuts to classrooms, in reality. We need to have higher expectations for ourselves."
The total state budget is $40.9 billion.
"Our priorities here are relatively consistent with some of our historical ones," Baker said while announcing his fiscal 2019 budget, which raises spending by 2.6 percent over the current fiscal year's budget. "We've tried to be pretty good about funding unrestricted general government aid to cities and towns, at least at the rate that tax revenue grows, to continue to invest in K-12 education and to put resources on the table for both early childhood education and higher education to help people pay for access to college programming."
Baker's proposed budget will be reviewed by each the House and the Senate. Each side of the legislature also releases its own proposed budget, and a compromise budget will be presented by Baker for his approval. The 2019 fiscal year starts July 1.
Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.
Jonathan Phelps can be reached at 508-626-4338 or jphelps@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @JPhelps_MW.