South Hadley School Committee voted in late December of last year to endorse Mass Promise to Invest’s education funding advocacy which seeks for the Commonwealth to provide a targeted underwriting of sending tuition assessments to support low and moderate income school districts. They join Amherst, Amherst-Pelham, Greenfield and Northampton School committee and the Northampton City Council in endorsing this advocacy.
January marks the beginning of a new 2 year state legislative session in the Commonwealth. Now is the time at the beginning of the legislative session to request that you state legislators file bills to support school funding equity.
As state legislative leaders, such as Senate President Karen Spilka, eye K-12 funding reform, we must adamantly and collectively insist that the regressive elements of K-12 funding in the Commonwealth need to be addressed by the state legislature. To support our school districts in fiscal crisis, the Commonwealth must prioritizing funding equity in the distribution of new proposed municipal state school funding. That means new state school funding aid for school districts with the largest demonstrated need for new funding, as evidenced by high sending tuition assessments, declining enrollment, minimum aid status and/ or low municipal wealth*.
Mass Promise to Invest believes that the most equitable, transparent and expedient way to support K-12 education in the Commonwealth is with a targeted underwriting of sending tuition assessments for low and moderate income school districts.
*Municipal wealth as calculated by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, DESE, using their combined effort yield formula
MASS Promise to Invest: School Funding for Every Child 