Sen. Adam G. Hinds (D-Pittsfield)
BOSTON – State Senator Adam G. Hinds (D-Pittsfield) announces he has authored legislation to ensure fair funding for the Commonwealth’s rural schools. Filed on Monday, SD 2292, An Act ensuring fair funding for rural schools amends the state’s Chapter 70 formula by rurality as a factor to be considered by state officials when calculating annual education funds for school districts. This legislation builds upon successful efforts from the 2017-2018 legislative session during which Senator Hinds laid the groundwork for bolstering state aid for rural school districts.
“We cannot accept a public education system that continues to let our students down, and we cannot allow a child’s zip code to determine the resources available to support their school,” said Senator Hinds. “Rural school districts spend more, per pupil, for costs associated with teachers, para educators and student transportation, and this bill seeks to address that inequity.”
Representing the largest district in the Massachusetts Legislature, roughly the size of Rhode Island comprised of 50 small towns and two small western Mass. cities, Senator Hinds began advocating for rural schools during his first year in office. In 2017 he secured a mandate in the FY18 state budget directing the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to study and make recommendations on the fiscal challenges faced by rural school districts statewide. The following year, in 2018, Senator Hinds used the Report’s findings to establish a new grant program, Rural School Aid, funded at $1.5M in the FY19 state budget to help the state’s smallest school districts pay their bills. In October $1.5 million in Rural School Aid grants was distributed by DESE to 33 school districts, primarily located in western and central Massachusetts and on Cape Cod. Since 2017, advocacy for rural school funding has quickly evolved from a district-focused initiative to a statewide campaign.
SD 2292 represents over two years’ worth of advocacy efforts spearheaded by Senator Hinds in collaboration with legislators representing rural communities, DESE, school leaders, and rural school advocates like the Massachusetts Rural Schools Coalition. The legislation includes two basic elements: (1) Mandates that DESE shall consider rural factors when developing, calculating and distributing Chapter 70 aid to communities with rural schools and shall further reevaluate and appropriately and reasonably adjust their state school aid; and (2) Establishes a modified and expanded Rural School Aid formula in statute.
“The legislation seeks to ensure rural schools are equitably funded by providing fiscally-strained communities with rural schools the opportunity to invest additional local minimum aid into their rural schools when they would otherwise not have been able to,” said Senator Hinds. “It also provides districts with a predictable annual source of funding by changing the Ch. 70 formula to include rurality.”
Senator Hinds’ fair funding for rural schools campaign also has a budget component. He hopes to increase total funding for the Rural School Aid grant program to $9 million in the FY20 state budget, and will file an amendment during the Senate’s budget debate in May to try to secure that figure.
Today Senator Hinds invited his House and Senate colleagues to support SD 2292 by co-sponsoring the legislation. He also briefed his Rural Caucus co-chairs on SD 2292 and his plans for Rural School Aid, and it is expected that both the legislation and FY20 Rural School Aid budget ask will be featured during Rural Schools Advocacy Day in the State House, scheduled to take place on Thursday, February 28th.
Rural school district officials, teachers, students and parents will join the Rural Schools Coalition, chaired by Superintendent Michael Buoniconti of the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, at the State House for Rural Schools Day to build support for rural schools, SD 2292 and Rural School Aid funding in the FY20 state budget. A briefing, open to the media and the public, will take place at 10:30am in State House Room 222 before Coalition members visit legislators and staff.
