As senators opened a conversation Monday of overhauling the state's K-12 education funding and municipal contribution formulas, Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said the administration would not lead the effort.
Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, who chaired a hearing Monday at UMass Amherst on Gov. Maura Healey's fiscal year 2026 budget focused on education and local aid, has long advocated for Massachusetts to rewrite the formula by which state dollars flow to local school districts, directed by a state law called Chapter 70.
Comerford represents a large area of the Connecticut River Valley, made up of many small towns and regional school districts, as well as the city of Northampton. Rural districts and small to mid-sized towns have often said they are not prioritized under the current funding formula, and have not benefited from the Student Opportunity Act which injected $1.5 billion largely into cities over the past five years.
"The complexities facing very different districts, from rural western Massachusetts all the way to the east coast, all that complexity, I believe, requires us to gather ourselves in a new Foundation Budget Review Commission, and one that also tackles the municipal contribution. It's been a decade since the last FBRC; it's been 17 years since we tackled the municipal contribution. We need to join those together," Comerford said.
The chair asked Tutwiler if he would "lead work to open up the Chapter 70 and municipal contribution formulas," including looking at special education costs, charter school funding formulas, and more. She said she was "monumentally disappointed" that Healey did not include such a commission in her budget.
Tutwiler responded that he would follow the Legislature's lead.
"Madam chair, I don't want to disappoint you, because I respect you first and foremost. And I like you a lot. But my answer is going to be the same as it was last year. We will follow the lead of the Legislature on this important conversation," he said, offering the administration's partnership if lawmakers go down that path.
A number of senators brought up overhauling the Chapter 70 formula during the budget hearing, including Sen. Jacob Oliviera and Sen. Kelly Dooner. The several hundred attendees in the UMass Amherst auditorium broke into applause and cheering each time.
