In our look back at news of the week, there was a lot of talk about how schools are funded in Massachusetts.
A group of parents and education advocates sued state officials, saying the current funding formula doesn't keep up with the needs of students, and the bills on Beacon Hill don't go far enough.
A parent from Orange, Massachusetts, named Danielle Anderson, said she wants the state funding system to be fairer "so that our taxpayers aren't going to have to try and make up the difference," she said. "The taxpayers in Cambridge can afford it. We can't. We just don't have it."
Panelist Chris Collins said there's a long history in Massachusetts of using legal action to force legislators to do their jobs.
"I think that those that make policy in this state tend to over-complicate it," Collins said. "It's very simple. You cannot continue to fund schools through the tax rate, the tax base of individual communities. There's got to be a different funding mechanism. There's got to be a better funding formula."
Governor Charlie Baker was in Springfield, Massachusetts, this week touting his own education funding bill. He said rural districts, where enrollments and state funding have been dropping need to be "right-sized."
"I think the biggest thing we need to do there is work with them to figure out what I would describe as the right-sizing of their school districts, and their schools is going to look like," Baker said.
There's been a lot of talk about consolidation of schools in Berkshire County in recent years, which panelist Kristin Palpini said could be a cause for concern.
"The east side of the state doesn't seem to know what's happening in the west side with the rural communities," she said. "I thought Baker's comments were naive and condescending, and didn't acknowledge the decades, quite frankly, of work and collaboration that schools out here have been putting in to make their budgets work."
"If I had a word to choose I'd choose myopic," Collins said. "I mean, it's embarrassing that a governor of Massachusetts would be that naive. Yeah, it's nice to say, 'Well, let's right-size these districts.' Oh, great — if you want to spend three hours on a school bus going to school. I mean, that's the part that no one talks about geographically."
In Connecticut,no deal was reached over marijuana legalization during the recently concluded legislative session. Lawmakers couldn't agree on some of the finer details of legislation, and there's also been a well-funded opposition group coming out against the idea. There's a chance voters could be asked to decide the issue, although that would be a time-consuming task.
And in Massachusetts, lawmakers heard both sides of keeping the state's film tax credit. It's currently due to run out at the end of 2022, and provides a 25 percent state payroll tax break as an incentive to film in the state. Proponents want to make the tax permanent to keep the cameras rolling, while opponents feel Massachusetts isn't getting enough in return.
Guests:
- Chris Collins, columnist,Greenfield Recorder
- Kristin Palpini, business editor, The Berkshire Eagle
