Town's Ed. Reform funding falls short of others
Published on August 5th, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - The Town of Stoneham will receive some much-needed relief from the state in terms of educational funding in Fiscal Year 1999 as a result of the record breaking $368.1 million hike from legislators, but still appears to have fallen short of the mark when compared to other towns.
Stoneham will receive a 5.6 percent increase ($363,043), a significant raise over the $6,471,137 the town received last year, but a far cry from the 22 percent increase for Reading and nearly half of other Massachusetts towns and cities which received increases of over 10 percent.
"That's just the way that Chapter 70 money is being distributed," State Senator Richard Tisei said on Tuesday. "There was a formula put in place meant to measure each community's needs and what they could spend on education."
Tisei explained that the formula was arrived at about five years ago when the Education Reform Act went into affect. Towns like Stoneham, however, have felt the financial pinch while cities like Lawrence and Boston have reaped the benefits.
"The whole idea to education reform was to bring the poor communities up to the level of the rich communities (in terms of public education)," he explained. "The lion's share of the money goes to urban areas."
The state is now budgeted to spend nearly $4.2 billion on education this fiscal year and this year's increase is the most progressive move toward adequate financing by the state of education. This may all change next year, however, due to the end of the current formula's life span.
Tisei explained that this first formula has been ineffective for towns such as Stoneham, Melrose and Wakefield (both of which received smaller percentage increases than Stoneham).
"I think (the formulas) should be changed," he said. "A lot of people believe that the good school systems have been hurt by this while the bad systems have made out.
"It doesn't make a lot of sense when you look at it."
Tisei said that several formula options have already been discussed , one of which will be put in place in the next fiscal year.
On the brighter side, Massachusetts has reached an all-time high in funding, depositing nearly $4.2 billion into municipality coffers, much of it coming from the state's lottery system.
In 1993, the state was appropriating about $2.5 billion.
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