It’s easy to see the pressure that our new governor is facing as he takes the reins of the Commonwealth given his newest 9C reductions in state government. While it’s still too early to determine the exact impact his new reductions will have on the state, it appears that he has not spared education, especially support for early childhood education, expanded kindergarten, kindergarten/grade 1, MCAS remediation, special education circuit breaker funding and a host of other related programs. In addition, Governor Baker did not reverse the prior 9C reductions in regional transportation enacted by Governor Patrick that have had a major impact on regional districts such as Gateway.
I believe these reductions begin to define how Governor Baker identifies ‘local aid’, which he promised not to reduce and that his definition is much more narrowly defined than many. After all, a reduction in regional transportation (again in obvious disregard of the 2010 law that only allows reductions in regional transportation equal to a reduction in Chaper 70 funding, and a reduction in other educational aid to school districts) seems to be a reduction in ‘local aid’ as the cities, towns, or regional school districts either have to cut services or provide more money to education. But if we define local aid narrowly enough (i.e., just certain ‘cherry sheet’ items directly to cities/towns) then we can reduce a significant amount of funding to cities and towns without ‘technically’ reducing local aid.
Given that Governor Baker and his new Secretary of Education are very strong proponents of charter schools, it will be interesting to see if these cuts to public education are a harbinger of further pressures on public schools with the intent to replace, supplant, or eliminate public schools. We’ll watch with interest as Governor Baker’s administration deals with education and whether it moves to increase charter schools or even provide tuition vouchers to ‘private’ educational entities, as is happening in other states across the country.
These initial forays into how to deal with a loss of state revenue may also be an indication of what’s to come when Governor Baker releases his first “House I” or “Governor’s Budget” sometime in the next month. With a potential shortfall of as much as a billion dollars, developing a balanced budget—especially after promising not to raise taxes or fees, will not be an easy task. As many others have pointed out, it’s not a simple thing to apply the free market principles employed by private industry into a government that has multiple purposes beyond producing items on a for-profit basis. It’s certainly a difficult job for anyone serving in public office and, whether one agrees or disagrees with the decisions public officials make, they should be given credit for taking on responsibilities that are far more difficult to fulfill than working in the private sector. In so many ways, local, state and national public officials are in a ‘no win’ situation, as every decision will please some and anger others and must be made under a wide range of restrictions that are often not found in the private sector.
