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A Haverhill School Committee member’s proposal to overhaul the way the state accounts for inflation in annual education aid payments recently won backing from the Massachusetts Association of School Committees.
The plan, brought forward by Association delegate and School Committee member Thomas Grannemann, was approved by the group at its delegate assembly last Friday in Hyannis. The resolution will be used to guide the Association’s efforts to convince legislators to make changes to the formula. It aims to automatically adjust minimum aid and the base amount for which all future budgets build upon.
“If the legislature and governor adopt this proposal it would bring about $7 million to $8 million in state school aid to Haverhill each year and similarly help other districts. Importantly, it would ensure that future state aid keeps up with inflation,” Grannemann told WHAV in an email.
WHAV reported in March that Grannemann, a former economist, argued Haverhill should have received approximately $19.2 million in additional state aid since 2023. It was lower because levels of inflation in 2022 and 2023 were higher than the formula’s 4.5% cap.
“That shortfall reduced the base foundation budgets for all districts by 6% and the aid formula carries that forward to all future years. So, Massachusetts school districts now receive aid based on a foundation budget that is 6% lower than what is needed to provide the service levels envisioned in the Student Opportunity Act,” he said.
In a report penned by Granneman, he argued that the state “is headed toward a major failure to meet its Student Opportunity Act promise to pay for quality public education for all Massachusetts students.”
The city’s projected loss under the artificial cap on state aid was approximately $3 million in 2023, $7.8 million in 2024 and a projected $8.3 million loss in 2025. In his report, gateway cities such as Worcester, Attleboro, Chelsea and Chicopee, among 21 others, are slated to lose $678.4 million cumulatively between 2023 and 2025.
“So, eliminating the 4.5% cap is important to maintaining school purchasing power through inflationary periods,” he explained.
Grannemann said the proposal does not intend to recoup money from previous years, noting that federal funds alleviated some of the shortfall.
He said Haverhill will continue to work with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, other school committees, legislators and Gov. Maura Healey to pursue solutions.
“Addressing it will require hundreds of millions of dollars in school aid across the Commonwealth. We must ask our state officials to commit the funding needed to maintain the integrity of Chapter 70 funding and meet the original promises of the Student Opportunity Act to improve student achievement and educational opportunities for all students,” he said.
Committee Vice Chairman Paul A. Magliocchetti, who also met with Beacon Hill lawmakers in March to lobby for help, told WHAV that “We’re taking this fight as far as we can.”
“In addition to MASC, we’re going to fight for the additional funding together with the mayor,” he said.