The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
FY2020 Senate Ways and Means Budget Recommendations
On May 7th, the Senate Ways and Means Committee (SWM), released its FY2020 budget recommendations for the upcoming fiscal year. The Senate Ways and Means Committee recommends total state spending of $42.7 billion representing a 3.1 percent increase over FY2019 spending.
The recommended appropriations total for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (Department), including education local aid and reimbursements, is $5.882 billion, which represents an increase of $284.1 million (5 percent), over FY2019 spending, and an increase of $89.3 million (1.5 percent) above the Governor's FY2020 request (House 1).
The Senate Ways and Means budget prioritizes an increase in education aid and reimbursement accounts; with increases of $268.4M in Chapter 70 aid, $10M in Charter Tuition Reimbursement, $5M in Regional Transportation and $25.7M in Circuit Breaker.
The following summarizes the SWM education recommendations by program area. Our budget tracking spreadsheet is attached, showing detail for all Department appropriations.
I. Education Local Aid & Reimbursements
Chapter 70 aid (7061-0008), is increased by $268.4M (5.5 percent) over FY2019 to $5.176B. The FY2020 SWM proposal implements foundation budget rate changes, above inflation, in the areas identified by the Foundation Budget Review Commission (FBRC).
For benefits and fixed charges, the SWM budget proposes to close one-seventh of the gap toward the H.70 goal rates, the same as the Governor's House 1 budget and compared to one-sixth proposed by House Ways and Means Committee (HWM).
Senate Ways and Means also establishes new goal rates for economically disadvantaged students in deciles 6–10, so that decile 6 is increased to 77 percent of the statewide average foundation budget per pupil base rate and decile 10 is increased to 100 percent.
It closes one-seventh of the gap toward the new economically disadvantaged goal rates for deciles 6–10 and proposes to increase deciles 1–5 by annual inflation. Similar to HWM, SWM does not fund the high needs concentration increment proposed in House 1 and H.70.
Regarding English learners (ELs), the SWM budget includes all reported English learners in foundation enrollment and establishes new goal rates for each EL grade category so that at full implementation all ELs will receive an increment equal to $2,537 per pupil in FY2020 dollars, closing one-seventh of the gap toward the new goal rate in FY2020. House 1 and HWM both fully phase-in the EL rate increase in FY2020 and provide higher rates for middle school and high school ELs. Senate Ways and Means also closes one-seventh of the gap toward the out-of-district special education goal rate proposed in H.70, the same as House 1 and compared to one-sixth in the HWM budget.
Senate Ways and Means also initiates an increase to the in-district assumed special education percentages, closing one-seventh of the gap between 3.75 percent and 4 percent for non-vocational students and one-seventh of the gap between 4.75 percent and 5 percent for vocational students. The assumed rates in the SWM proposal are 3.79 percent and 4.79 respectively.
Finally, SWM removes the early college and career pathways rate proposed in House 1 and includes all pathways students at the regular high school rate.
Special Education Circuit Breaker reimbursement (7061-0012) is increased by $25.7M over the FY2019 level to $345M, with $17.7M to support district claims growth and $4M to increase support for the voluntary residential placement prevention program at the Department of Developmental Services.
Senate Ways and Means proposes an increase of $10M for Charter School Tuition District Reimbursements (7061-9010) to $100M, $6M less than the Governor had proposed in House 1. The Senate Ways and Means budget supports the Governor's House 1 proposal to move to a three-year reimbursement schedule (100/60/40) and bases reimbursement on year-over-year tuition growth instead of 5-year enrollment growth, as was proposed in House 1 and HWM. Senate Ways and Means also proposes prorating the first year of tuition reimbursement instead of all three years. Like House 1 and HWM, SWM also increases the facilities tuition rate to $938 per student.
The Senate Ways and Means budget has increased Regional School Transportation (7035-0006) by $5M over the FY19 GAA. Foundation Reserve (7061-0011) is not funded in FY2020 since students who came here due to Hurricanes Maria and Irma are now included as part of the Chapter 70 formula. The FY2020 SWM budget also eliminates funding for Regional Bonus Aid (7061-9810) and level funds the Rural Aid account (7061-9813).
The Senate Ways and Means budget recommendations did not include the Governor's House 1 proposed education investment trust funds that would be used to seed education investments, including $50 million for a new trust fund to help drive quality improvements in low-performing schools (7010-5010 Public School Improvement Trust Fund) and $30 million to help local school districts address their school safety needs (7010-5020 School Safety Trust Fund).
I. Targeted District Support
Senate Ways and Means did not support the House 1 proposed consolidation of Expanded Learning Time Grants (7061-9412) with the Targeted Assistance account (7061-9408). The accounts remain as separate appropriations at similar levels as FY2019.II. Literacy and English Language Acquisition
Senate Ways and Means did not support the House 1 proposed consolidation of the Literacy and English Language Acquisition accounts into a newly renamed English Acquisition and Literacy Programs account. The accounts remain as separate appropriations with small increases for payroll costs.III. Program Changes
The Senate Ways and Means budget eliminates FY2020 funding for the 7061-0010 Mental Health and Substance Abuse Grants. However, it is likely that some of the FY2019 funding will continue into FY2020 once a PAC (prior appropriation continued) provision is approved through a supplemental budget.
The FY2020 SWM budget increases Adult Basic Education (7035-0002) by $4.945 million over FY2019 GAA.
The Senate Ways and Means budget eliminates spending for four other accounts previously funded in FY2019: 7061-0033 Public School Military Mitigation, 7061-9011 Innovation Schools, 7061-9401 Assessment Consortium, and 7061-9406 College and Career Readiness Program.
Senate Ways and Means supports the Governor's House 1 request to increase FY2020 funding in the Teacher Certification Retained Revenue (7061-9601) account to $2.3 million to fund staff in the Office of Professional Practice Investigations to reduce the current backlog of cases.
In the FY2020 SWM budget recommendations, Recovery High School Program (7061-9607) is funded at $2.5 million, a reduction of $600,000 from FY2019 GAA.
The Department's other accounts are level funded in the SWM budget with either the removal of legislative earmarks and/or changes in FY2020 payroll costs.
The attached chart summarizes the FY2020 SWM budget recommendations in comparison to our current year's appropriation history and identifies variances.
The Senate Ways and Means recommendations will be debated in the full Senate starting the week of May 13, 2019. We will discuss the Senate budget proposal at our May 21st Board meeting.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
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