Page 10 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, January 24, 2025 Sen. Lewis files new legislation to revisit school funding formula Special to The Advocate L ast week State Senator Jason Lewis filed new legislation, An Act to ensure adequate and equitable funding for public education, to create a special commission to revisit the K-12 public school funding formula. The commission would be tasked with making recommendations to the legislature for necessary updates and changes to the funding formula in order to ensure adequate and equitable funding for all school districts in Massachusetts. Senator Lewis was a strong advocate for the creation of the Foundation Budget Review Commission in 2014, and he then helped lead the effort to pass the Student Opportunity K-12 education by more than $1.5 billion (in real dollars). Although the SOA is making Jason Lewis State Senator Act (SOA), which was signed into law in 2019. The SOA is being implemented over seven years and once fully implemented will increase state funding for public Like us on Facebook advocate newspaper Facebook.com/ Advocate.news.ma a significant difference in closing equity gaps in funding and enabling school districts that serve large numbers of low-income students to make important new investments, many districts are facing fiscal challenges due to a variety of factors, including the end of federal pandemic relief funds, high inflation in previous years and the escalating cost of special education, student transportation and other services. In Senate President Karen Spilka’s 2025 Inaugural Address earlier this month, she said, “At the K-12 level we have maintained our commitment to the Student Opportunity Act, proCHANGES | FROM PAGE 1 sult in Malden receiving an increased allocation, then it is possible this city’s proverbial “ship would come in.” The Chapter 70 funding numbers from this past fiscal year illustrate a stark disparity in funding, when the Malden Public Schools district is compared to two neighboring school districts. Everett and Revere are two similar districts both size-wise and demographically in school populations and the financial status of its students’ families. Malden School Committee budget chairperson Spadafora made a detailed presentation in February 2024 – nearly one year ago – on the Commonwealth’s release of initial Chapter 70 funding figures. At that time, Malden’s allocation was estimated at $68.2 million, with the final number coming in at just over $70 million. For the city of Everett, however, which has about 300-350 more students overall (about 6,700) than Malden’s 6,400 districtwide, the Chapter 70 funding allocation for FY2025 was $111,682,212 – nearly twice as much as Malden’s. Revere Public Schools were allocated $98,418,111 viding record levels of funding to our public schools. But it has been some time since we closely examined some aspects of K-12 funding and policy, and so I hope to tackle that this session.” An Act to ensure adequate and equitable funding for public education (SD.1912) creates a special commission composed of a wide variety of education stakeholders and financing experts, and charges them with examining both the foundation budget and the local contribution components of the Chapter 70 school funding formula. The SOA requires that the foundation budget be revisited at least every 10 years. “The importance of public education and having high-quality, well-funded public schools for all – about 40% more than Malden’s figure. For the record, the Chapter 70 funding for Malden for this school year, about $72 million, represents a full 77% of the city’s total Malden Public Schools FY25 budget of $93.4 million, obviously the major portion of the total figure. At that meeting, Spadafora said “we will be working toward a level-funded budget for [the next school year] and it will be very challenging with these [Chapter 70] numbers.” “We are working on a formula that was devised in the 1990s. We really need to have it reexamined and brought up-to-date,” Mayor Christenson said, reiterating Spadafora’s plea. In proposing this new legislation, Sen. Lewis explained, “The commission is tasked with making recommendations to the legislature for necessary updates and changes to the funding formula in order to ensure adequate and equitable funding for all school districts in Massachusetts.” Certainly, one of the Senator’s represented districts – Malden – was one of the school districts he was referring to as an impetus for his action. Also notable was the fact our children is what first motivated me to run for elected office,” said Senator Lewis. “I’m proud of the Student Opportunity Act and everything we’ve done in the legislature to support public education, but it is time to once again revisit the school funding formula and ensure that it continues to accurately and fairly reflect the needs and fiscal capacity of school districts and municipalities across the Commonwealth.” Under SD.1912, the commission would solicit public input from hearings held throughout the state and would publish a report with their findings and recommendations by the summer of 2027, which is when the SOA is expected to be fully implemented. that in her inaugural address recently, Mass. Senate President Karen Spilka (D-2nd Middlesex and Norfolk) said, “At the K-12 level we have maintained our commitment to the Student Opportunity Act, providing record levels of funding to our public schools. But it has been some time since we closely examined some aspects of K-12 funding and policy, and so I hope to tackle that this session.” Sen. Lewis’ newest legislative push would seem to go handin-hand with the Mass. Senate President’s emphasis point. It is easy to say that Malden city and school officials will welcome the newest effort by Sen. Lewis quite warmly and will be following the progress of this new legislation with great interest as this year’s city and school budget process unfolds. While the timeline of such a legislative process would not realistically affect this year’s FY26 Chapter 70 funding allocation and local budget determinations, it could bode well for the future. For Malden, the waiting game continues, but there appears to be the possibility of some light at the end of this legislative tunnel.
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