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Shifting of state school aid eyed

By Anand Vaishnav
Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Key lawmakers said yesterday that the state should consider diverting increases in state aid from richer school systems to poorer ones, rather than raise taxes in response to Monday's court decision on school financing.

A day after a state judge found that Massachusetts is still not doing enough to help its poorest schools, lawmakers struggled to figure out how high the final price tag could be and how to pay for it.

In her ruling Monday, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford also recommended that the state spend more money on special education and for preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families. Early estimates of the preschool recommendation put the price tag at a minimum of $455 million, according to Early Education For All, an advocacy group. But lawmakers and others said they don't know the total cost of the recommendations, which require approval by the Supreme Judicial Court.

Senator Robert A. Antonioni, chairman of the Legislature's joint education committee, said that the Legislature had several options. One idea, he said, would be taking money which would normally go to wealthier school districts and giving it to the poorer ones. Another would be allocating more money for poorer districts by finding money from other sources, including other state departments. He said taxes could be an option, but would be an unpopular tactic.

His suggestion to divert money from richer to poorer school systems would mean that systems such as Brookline or Weston would not receive any increase in future years, beyond their current state aid allotment. Those school districts already get a lesser proportion of state aid than needier communities.

"You can reshuffle money from other parts of the budget," said Antonioni, a Leominster Democrat. "You can take from wealthy school districts to give to poorer school districts. or you can allocate more money."

Representative Peter J. Larkin, vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said lawmakers should weigh Antonioni's idea of shifting money among districts.

"Everything needs to be considered," said Larkin, a Pittsfield Democrat. "My first instinct is not that this needs to be a tax solution."

Under the current state financing method, the amount of state money a school system receives varies greatly. Lawrence, for example, gets 99 percent of its school funding from the state, while Weston gets about 9 percent and has to make up the difference with what it raises from property taxes. On average, basic state education aid constitutes 44 percent of a school system's budget, state figures show.

Antonioni's idea of slowing state education aid to wealthier districts and giving it to poorer ones irked Brookline School Committee chairwoman Marcia M. Heist, who called it ridiculous. She said the town, which has some of the highest-achieving schools in the Commonwealth, supports overhauling the school finance formula to help poorer communities. But, she said, high-performing towns also must keep the programs that have attracted parents.

Many of the state's upper-income communities, like poorer school systems, are facing lean budget times, and some towns have lost battles to increase the property tax because voters rejected the Proposition 2 1/2 overrides.

"If we're going to sustain our system, we're not going to do it with less money or with no money," Heist said.

Governor Mitt Romney last year proposed updating the school finance formula to give more money to low-income students, which would have made less money available for middle- or upper-income towns. But the Legislature did not adopt that change.

Romney said yesterday that Botsford's ruling paves the way for a revamped funding formula, but said he did not think the court decision would be costly. He did not suggest ways to pay for any increase in funding, saying he would wait for the SJC's ruling. The governor said he supported Botsford's call for better oversight of superintendents and principals in struggling school systems and said they should have more power to fire incompetent teachers.

"I'll be very surprised if any kind of big numbers come jumping from the SJC," Romney said. "I think instead they're going to focus on accountability."

But Romney, who argues that the state's high court overstepped its boundaries by legalizing gay marriage, also urged the justices to stay out of the debate over education spending.

State Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, addressing 200 school committee members at the State House, said the state would not shirk its constitutional duty to provide an adequate education for the state's nearly 1 million schoolchildren.

"Whatever we have to do, we're going to do it," said Travaglini, Democrat of East Boston. "It's simple: If some of our children have been left behind, we'll do what's necessary for them to catch up and be afforded the same opportunities as everyone else."

Responding to a school committee member's question, he said that raising taxes was an option, but that it would probably get a lukewarm reception.

The Legislature and Romney already have been discussing some of what Botsford suggested, including adding statewide preschool programs and providing more money for constructing school buildings.

In her ruling, Botsford noted that the state has spent $30.8 billion over 10 years toward schools' operating costs, making annual increases of 12 percent. But she agreed with plaintiffs who argued that the money has not reached all corners of the Commonwealth equally. The lawsuit was a continuation of a case decided 11 years ago, when the SJC ordered the Legislature to bridge financial gaps between rich and poor school systems.

The lead plaintiff is Brockton High School 10th-grader Julie Hancock, who yesterday received three standing ovations from school committee members during their annual lobbying day at the State House.

"This is not an extracurricular activity for me," the 15-year-old said. "This is a real campaign that means a lot to me, my family, and my community."

Globe correspondent Suzanne Sataline contributed to this report.

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

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