Friday afternoon, Sen. Kennedy testified before the Joint Committee on Education in support of the PROMISE Act, a bill seeking to reforming the Commonwealth’s education funding formula and provide more equitable funding for all of the state’s public school districts. Below is his testimony:
As the Joint Committee on Education convenes to consider various legislative proposals to restructure the Commonwealth’s education funding formula, I would like to take the opportunity to express my support of An Act providing rightful opportunities and meaningful investment for successful and equitable education (S.238/H.586) and to urge the committee to report favorably on this critical legislation.
My experience as the Mayor of Lowell provided me with an in-depth perspective of the fiscal challenges posed to districts by the state’s chronic underfunding of public education. In that capacity, I had the dual responsibility of presiding over City Council meetings on Tuesday evenings, and serving as chair of the School Committee on Wednesday evenings. At council meetings, I would hear concerns of increasing school spending eating away at the city’s budget and the next evening, I would hear from the School Committee that the school district was not receiving adequate funding to meet the unique demands of providing a high quality education to our students. The daunting reality in Lowell, and for communities around Massachusetts, is both sides are correct. That will remain the case until we succeed in enacting reform that implements each of the recommendations of the Foundation Budget Review Commission.
The detriments of the foundation budget in its current form, while impacting every school district in the Commonwealth, are particularly pronounced in Lowell and in other similar Gateway Cities. In Lowell, the foundation budget formula underestimates the actual health insurance costs to the district by more than 50 percent which, given the size of the district, translates to an $18 million annual shortfall that must be made up at the local level. The district’s obligations in this area leave no other option but to make difficult cuts that directly impact education quality. Increasing class sizes cannot be mitigated, spending on technology and other instructional material does not approach adequate levels, and the district struggles to keep up with building maintenance.
It must be emphasized any proposed reform to public education funding cannot be considered sufficient if it fails to address the funding needs of districts serving a high percentage of low-income students. The Foundation Budget Review Commission clearly identified the necessity of providing additional funding to meet the district needs of such districts. Lowell’s 26 schools serve 14,668 students, of which more than 52 percent, over 7,500 students, are considered economically disadvantaged by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. In order to ensure these students succeed, critical investments must be made to improve instruction quality and to implement best practices known to enhance student achievement. The PROMISE Act is the only legislation before this committee that fulfills this critical recommendation, and is thereby the only proposal that truly achieves our shared goal of providing a high quality education to every student within the Commonwealth.
While the situation in my hometown starkly illustrates what is at stake as we consider reforming education funding, calls for reform have been pervasive across my district – from Lowell, one of the Commonwealth’s largest school districts, to suburban communities including Westford and Tyngsboro, and rural communities served by regional school districts. To reflect the support this legislation has garnered in my district, I am submitting for the review of the committee resolutions adopted by the following municipal boards: the Lowell City Council, the Groton Select Board, the Dunstable Board of Selectmen, the Pepperell Board of Selectmen, and the Groton-Dunstable Regional School Committee.
The broad consensus around the need to enact reform to the foundation budget during this legislative session within the legislature and the executive branch provides us with the rare opportunity to finally correct major shortcomings that have jeopardized the futures of Massachusetts students for too long. This is a moment we cannot afford to squander by passing legislation that misses the mark on reforms determined necessary by the FBRC. Once again, on behalf of the thousands of students in my district who could not be guaranteed a high quality education if a partial approach to reform is taken, I urge this committee to support the only legislation that fully implements critical changes required for education low-income students, and to report favorably on Senate Bill 238 and House Bill 586.
