MASSACHUSETTS’S EARLY CHILDHOOD education system is unaffordable and inaccessible to too many families, and it will cost an estimated $1.5 billion a year to improve it, according to a report released Monday by a special legislative commission looking at the economics of early education and care. The commission, led by Education Committee co-chairs Sen. Jason […]
Alice Peisch
Posted inEducation
Education funding shortfall could spur new lawsuit
WHEN MASSACHUSETTS LAWMAKERS passed a landmark rewrite of the state’s school funding formula last year, it was done with a lawsuit hanging over their heads. Now, advocates are keeping a close eye on the law’s fulfillment – and say they will consider filing another suit if the new formula is not funded this year. “We initially filed a lawsuit because the […]
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The new Massachusetts ‘grand bargain’ in public education
ANY PARENT WHO has watched her child walk into school for their first day of kindergarten – or dropped her off at college some 13 years later – knows it is a day fraught with some amount of panic. You hope you have prepared her for the road ahead, but there is no way to […]
Posted inEducation
With education bill-signing, cheers and challenges
AFTER YEARS OF false starts and Beacon Hill standoffs on a growing funding crisis that has seen school districts shed hundreds of teachers and pare back vital curriculum offerings to balance budgets, Gov. Charlie Baker signed landmark legislation on Tuesday committing the state to $1.5 billion in new aid to Massachusetts schools. There was a […]
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Agreement reached on ed funding bill
LAWMAKERS HAVE REACHED agreement on a long-awaited education funding bill, setting the stage for the most significant update to the formula for financing Massachusetts school districts since the landmark 1993 Education Reform Act. The bill, which emerged after less than three weeks of closed-door negotiations by House and Senate members, would steer $1.5 billion in […]
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Education bill hinges on accountability tussle
THE SWEEPING EDUCATION funding bill, versions of which have cleared both branches of the Legislature, is now in the hands of a House-Senate conference committee, which will work to reconcile differences between the two chambers over the state’s oversight role. But it turns out there are not only gaps between the bills to be ironed […]
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House unveils education bill — minus controversial Senate amendment
TWO WEEKS AFTER the Senate approved a sweeping education funding bill, but stripped out language giving the state authority to oversee how the money is spent, the House appears poised to restore those accountability provisions, setting the stage for a potential clash between the two chambers. The House and Ways and Means Committee released a […]
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On education bill, funding and taxes loom large
THE RELEASE OF a long-awaited bill updating the state’s education funding formula immediately raised one big question: Would new state taxes be needed to pay for the $1.5 billion plan? In a word, “no,” said House Speaker Robert DeLeo at last Thursday’s press briefing unveiling the legislation. The reality may be more complicated than that. […]
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‘Promise Act’ ed bill would be boon for Boston
WHEN BOSTON MAYOR Mayor Marty Walsh testified in late March on behalf of a bill to revamp the state’s 26-year-old education funding formula, he called it “a solution that will finally take politics out of the conversation.” But as underscored by plans for a big State House rally on Thursday to push for more state […]
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Senate calls for ed funding formula revamp
STATE OFFICIALS ARE marking the 25th anniversary of the landmark 1993 education reform law with a statewide set of events being held under the banner “Leading the Nation,” a reference to the top performance of Massachusetts students on national achievement tests. But the boasts and bows are colliding with an inconvenient truth: The state’s students […]