A Quick Note About the Forum

Summary paragraph: In which Menin tries to sum up the Educational Funding Forum held this evening.

Although the turnout could have been larger for the Forum tonight, the discussion was fruitful and spirited.

To boil it down to a few main points, I think we can safely say:

• There are some efforts that can be made to tweak the Chapter 70 formula that might help Newburyport in small ways in '09, such as looking at reimbursement for SPED transportation, and adjusting the incoming/outgoing rates for students going to the charter school.
• Efforts to reform Proposition 2.5 to allow for a binding restriction on money raised, to keep it permanently designated for schools is a fight no one has the stomach for. (Although no-one asked whether such a change could be made with a sunset clause in it that looks out five or ten years ahead)
• It is very unlikely that the minimum bottom will rise from 17.5% to 20% reimbursement, because of the influx of cash needed to make that happen.
• It is unlikely that the activation of circuit-breaker SPED money will change from the current 4X foundation figure (statutorily funded at 75% when money is apportioned, traditionally funded at 72% of costs over 4X foundation). We had hoped that since we have one of the highest rates of serving special needs kids in-district, which is the legal, moral, and fiscally most responsible thing to do, we might get the state to look at rewarding schools systems with high in district service rates by having circuit-breaker kick in at 3X. A nonstarter, it seems.
• The most immediate source of savings for the city would be the agreement of the City unions to enter into the state GIC pool, which would leverage the "buying power" of multiple communities to provide equal or better insurance plans at tremendous savings. Those would be somewhere between $500,000 and $800,000 in '09. The problem is that we have to get all city unions to the table, to do that each needs to waive the requirement of 30 days notice to meet (the window closes on October 29th); and then have a weighted vote of 70% of the union approve. The 70% threshold is easily attained, with the teachers and AFSME representing somewhere near 80% of the unionized employees in the City. The problem is that all the other unions have granted waivers and are ready to meet; apparently the two police unions have yet to respond.
• Federal help will not be coming in time for the '09 budget start, because of the commitment to veto any measure above his spending caps made by President Bush, and the inability (in the Senate) to muster a veto-proof majority. Our Congressman John Tierney chairs the House Subcommittee on Education, Senator Kennedy Chairs the same Committee in the Senate; and the hope is that a new administration of the Democratic persuasion might refocus our national funding priorities.
• Representative Costello feels that outside of joining GIC, which would free up money in the budget, and some tweaking of Chapter 70, the only real hope for '09 is in an override.

So, the School Revenue Task Force will issue the first of 3 or 4 preliminary updates on November 5th. It is fair to say that there are many more ideas being discussed to address long-term funding issues, and that these ideas will not just be limited to how the school does business, but will involve the City side as well.