MTA statement on House Ways and Means budget
MTA statement on House Ways and Means budget
Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy issued the following statement about the House Ways and Means budget released today:
Across the Commonwealth, school districts are facing a severe funding crisis due to two years of very high inflation coupled with state policies that limit state and local revenue for education. This is leading to districts across the socioeconomic spectrum facing millions of dollars in cuts, and resulting in the potential loss of educators who are essential for our students. In public higher education, the budget maintains and makes some new commitments from the Fair Share Amendment funds, but does not advance a comprehensive approach to investing in debt-free, high-quality public higher education.
The House Committee on Ways and Means budget shows an understanding of this crisis. The committee proposes an additional $37 million in local education aid above the amount proposed by Governor Maura Healey. It also makes important long-term investments in attracting and retaining a high-quality and diverse educator workforce by funding the Tomorrow’s Teachers scholarship and loan forgiveness programs, so that people who want to dedicate their careers to educating Massachusetts students don’t need to go deeply into debt to be able to do so.
“While this plan takes steps forward, the MTA will continue to fight for more funds in this budget, as well as long-term fixes in how our Chapter 70 school aid formula calculates inflation adjustments and funds special education and school transportation.”
While this plan takes steps forward, the MTA will continue to fight for more funds in this budget, as well as long-term fixes in how our Chapter 70 school aid formula calculates inflation adjustments and funds special education and school transportation. In addition, we will seek additional, targeted funding to address the student mental health crisis that we see in many of our schools.
Thanks to the Fair Share Amendment, which the MTA played a crucial role in winning, today’s budget was also able to increase funding for early literacy efforts and student supports at our state universities, and it invests in an array of important public college and university scholarship programs. We hope and expect that the Legislature will return significant funding for building and maintaining public college and university facilities, as was proposed by the governor.
While revenues have been down, that is partly due to the decision of the Legislature to make $1 billion in permanent tax cuts this past year. The Legislature should employ the tools it has at its disposal to maintain the investments in our public schools and colleges, including redirecting Fair Share funds toward true public education in preK through higher education, drawing on our significant “rainy day” funds, and considering tax reform that would prevent multinational corporations from hiding their profits. All options should be on the table so that we do not experience massive cuts in our beloved public schools, and that we take a bigger step toward achieving the highest-quality, debt-free public higher education system our Commonwealth deserves.