How We Got Here...
Broken Promises: Regional Transportation Reimbursement
When Blackstone and Millville agreed to regionalize their school districts, the state promised to reimburse 100% of the regular transportation costs. However, the state routinely underfunds this account, with recent reimbursements usually amounting to 70-75% of the actual cost (SupportMARegionalSchools.org). The remaining financial burden ends up being shouldered by the member towns or the district, either through increased tax rates or crippling cuts to school programs, services, and/or staff. According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the state last year underfunded BMRSD regular transportation by $173,235. Over the past five years, our district has been underfunded by the state by $977,803. And considering that the state has been underfunding regional transportation since 2001, we have lost out on millions of dollars that we were promised when we agreed to regionalize our schools. Flawed Formulas: Foundation Budget Miscalculation
Regular regional transportation underfunding is chump change compared to what we are being shorted by the Foundation Budget. The Foundation Budget—which estimates the minimum required cost of operating the district and then determines how much state and local aid we receive—routinely underestimates some of our largest expenditures: special education, benefits, and fixed costs. Because these numbers are impossibly low and based on thirty-year-old rates, BMRSD is yet again underfunded and forced to either ask more from member towns or cut programs, extracurriculars, staff, and supplies. The state underestimates the cost of special education services, employee benefits, and retirement. This forces districts to "rob Peter to pay Paul," taking money from facilities and maintenance, technology, instructional materials, and other discretionary line items in order to cover mandated and/or fixed costs.
Sources: http://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/chapter70/chapter-17-local.pdf http://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/chapter70/chapter-17.html Cycle of Declining Enrollment This trend of underfunding and understaffing our schools is creating a cycle of declining enrollment; as discretionary funding declines, the district is forced to cut to the bone. Athletics, after school programs, electives, AP courses are usually among the first to go...along with technology, foreign language, and art. And as those programs disappear, our students choice out to schools that still offer those activities and programs--to the districts that choose to fund more than just the mandated minimum. In FY17, the cost of students choicing out to other districts cost BMRSD $608,218. With the student, so goes the funding. What little money our district has follows the students who choice out, helping to fund programs in other districts while further depleting ours...putting BMRSD back where it started with less funding, less programming, and again, students leaving... For more information on how we compare to other districts in the state, click here. |