Local legislators are looking to Gov. Charlie Baker to sign Massachusetts’ biggest public school reform law in a quarter century even as they pore through the proposal to see how much money it will send to their communities.
“All schools will be getting money,” said Saugus state Rep. Donald Wong, noting that the Student Opportunity Act (SOA) budgets $1.5 billion for public schools over seven years.
Massachusetts legislators unanimously approved SOA this week with Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s spokeswoman highlighting the reform bill’s major changes to public education.
“The Student Opportunity Act makes a lasting and profound investment in the Massachusetts public education system and places a special emphasis on English learners and districts serving our low-income students,” Catherine Williams quoted DeLeo, with the speaker adding:
“We’re building on our ongoing efforts to support our neediest students and to close opportunity gaps. I want to thank Chair (Alice Hanlon) Peisch for her leadership on this legislation, and Chair (Jason) Lewis for his hard work, and the conference committee especially Representatives (Paul) Tucker and (Kimberly) Ferguson. This was a collaboration among the House and the Senate, and I appreciate Senate President (Karen) Spilka’s partnership as we make this historic investment.”
Building on a 2015 study commission’s recommendations, SOA modernizes, according to a statement from DeLeo’s office, the kindergarten through grade 12 education funding and policy landscape in four areas:
*Estimates school districts’ employee and retiree health care costs using up-to-date health insurance trend data collected by the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC).
*Increases special education enrollment and cost assumptions to more accurately reflect district enrollment.
*Increases funding for English learners (EL) and differentiates funding by grade level to reflect the greater resources required to educate our older EL students.
*Addresses the needs of districts educating high concentrations of low-income students by providing additional funding based on the share of low-income students in each district.
SOA also ensures districts educating the largest percentage of low-income students receive an additional increment equal to 100 percent of the base foundation.
The reforms commit to fully funding charter school tuition reimbursement, which provides transitional aid to help districts when students leave to attend charter schools, within a three-year timetable.
It raises the annual cap on Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) spending for construction and renovation by $200 million (from $600 million to $800 million), enabling more school building projects across the state to be accepted into the MSBA funding pipeline, which reimburses towns and cities for a portion of school building costs.
In addition to new funding and other supports, SOA calls on school districts to develop and make publicly available plans for closing opportunity gaps.
“I hope the governor signs it quickly,” said state Sen. Brendan Crighton, adding, “We’ve supported these reforms for quite some time. These are really transformative changes to help all students meet their needs.”
These plans will include specific goals and metrics to track success. The bill includes language, to ensure that plans consider input from school committees and other stakeholders.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].
