HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 668        FILED ON: 1/12/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 348

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act relative to determining the distribution of local state aid for education  ..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

   SECTION 1. Property and income, being the two main measures of a community’s wealth or “ability to pay,” shall be given equitable weight in calculating the distribution of state education aid as well as the current number of pupils in each municipality. A formula based on only one measure of wealth will never produce a fair and accurate gauge of every community’s ability to pay. There are unique regional demographics and economic factors in the Commonwealth that make it impossible. Therefore, notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, it is the intention of the general court to assure fair and adequate funding for public schools in the commonwealth by defining a balanced standard of local funding based on median income, with every community having the choice of state aid as determined by Chapter 70 Section 10 or Chapter 70 Section 10A.

            SECTION 2. Section 2 of Chapter 70 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting the following new definition:—

            “Local share of the foundation budget,” shall be the product of seventy-five percent of the municipality’s foundation budget and the municipality’s median income per capita percentage of the state-wide average median income per capita over the last three years.

            SECTION 3. Chapter 70 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting the following new section:—

            Section 10A. Subject to appropriation, each municipality shall have the option of receiving state aid as defined in Section 10 or the difference of its foundation budget and its “local share of the foundation budget” as defined in Section 2.