Thursday, September 3, 2015
Evaluating School Budgets
When the Education Reform Act of 1993 was passed into law, it contained a foundation budget formula that established funding levels for K-12 public schools and requirements for state and local contributions for those schools. In order to ensure the continuing accuracy of the formula, the Act also requires that it be reviewed every three years by a Foundation Budget Review Commission.
Unfortunately, the formula was not subjected to such a review for many years. That’s why I worked with Senate Education Chair Sonia Chang-Diaz (D – Boston) to develop and co-sponsor an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2015 state budget to create a commission to perform a long overdue review.
The House adopted a similar amendment, and the Commission was created and underway. I was pleased to appoint Ed Moscovitch, who was instrumental in developing the original formula, to serve as a member.
The Commission conducted a series of six public input sessions across the state and is now scheduled to file its final report on November 1st. You can view the Commission’s recently issued interim report by clicking here.
