EDUCATION

The Conference Committee report cuts millions of dollars in support for public education from the FY 2009 GAA level. While the House and Senate had very similar budgets for Higher Education, in both early education and care and K-12 public education, the Conference Committee had to make major funding and policy decisions. By and large, the Conference Committee report adopts the lower funding level when choosing between the House and Senate recommendations.

K-12

In K-12 public education, the Conference Report adopted the Senate approach to Chapter 70 education aid, as well as funding levels for programs such as the Special Education Circuit Breaker and kindergarten expansion grants. Of the 25 programs where the House and Senate differed on funding levels, in 23 of them the lower appropriation was adopted in Conference Committee.

Specifically, the Conference Report:

• Funds Chapter 70 aid at $3.87 billion in state funds, identical to the funding level in the Senate budget. This amount is a cut of $79 million from both the final FY 2009 budget (GAA) level and the final House budget. This cut is accomplished by reducing state Chapter 70 aid to each school district by 2 percent. Like the House and Senate budgets, the Conference Report uses ARRA funds to provide each school district with enough aid to reach their Foundation Budget. The Conference Report relies on $167.6 million in ARRA funds. The Conference Report also adopts the Senate’s lower inflation factor of 3.04 percent, which is used to determine each district’s foundation budget. Both the House budget and the Governor’s budget recommendations used an inflation factor of 4.5 percent. For more information on the issues surrounding the calculation of the Chapter 70 foundation index, please see MassBudget’s Conference Preview, available online at http://www.massbudget.org/doc/647.

• Funds the Special Education Circuit Breaker at $141.1 million, identical to the funding level in the Senate. This amount is $43.7 million below the House budget appropriation, and a cut of $88.9 million from the FY 2009 GAA level. This lower appropriation will reduce the reimbursements that school districts receive for extraordinary special education costs.

• Funds regional school transportation reimbursements at $40.5 million, an amount in between the House appropriation of $50.5 million and the Senate appropriation of $30.5 million. The FY 2009 GAA included $61.3 million in reimbursements for regional school transportaion.

• Funds Extended Learning Time Grants at $15.7 million, identical to the funding level in the Senate budget. This amount is $1.7 million below the House budget appropriation, and a cut of $1.8 million from the FY 2009 GAA.

• Funds Kindergarten Expansion Grants at $26.7 million, identical to the funding level in the Senate buget. This amount is $1 million below the House budget appropriation, and a cut of $7 million from the FY 2009 GAA.

• Adopts the Senate proposal to consolidate three literacy line items into one. This new consolidated line item, which incorporates the Bay State Reading Institute, Reading Recovery and the Silber Early Literacy Program, is funded at $4.2 million, identical to the Senate appropriation. House budget funding for these separate programs totaled $5.1 million. In the FY 2009 GAA these programs were funded at $8.1 million.

• Funds School to Career Connecting Activities at $2 million. This program, which was funded at $3.7 million in the final House budget, was not included in the final Senate budget. This program, which helps high school students gain professional experience, was funded at $4.1 million in the FY 2009 GAA

Early Education and Care

The Conference Committee report provides $537.2 million in funding for early education and care programs, a cut of $52.9 million from the FY 2009 GAA funding level of $590.1 million. The Conference Report funding level falls below the early education and care appropriations of $548. 6 million in the House budget and $547.8 million in the Senate budget.

Specifically, the Conference Report:

• Retains the existing funding structure for the state’s 3 subsidized child care program, as was the case in the Senate budget. The House budget, following a recommendation by the Governor, consolidates the subsidized child care into one line item. The Conference Report appropriates $467.6 million in total for subsidized childcare, less than both the Senate ($478.1 million) and the House ($474 million). The lower appropriation is due to a reduction in spending for income eligible childcare in the Conference Report. Like the Senate budget, the Conference Report moves a group of children from the line item which provides guaranteed subsidized childcare, to the income eligible subsidized childcare program.

• Funds the state’s Universal Pre-K program at $8 million, identical to the funding level in the Senate budget. This amount is $1.8 million below the final House budget appropriation. In the FY 2009 GAA, the Universal Pre-K program was funded at $12.1 million.

• Funds programs to improve parenting skills for families participating in EEC programs at $5 million. This amount is $2 million above the Senate appropriation, but $2.5 million below the House funding level. These parenting skill programs were funded at $9.6 million in the FY 2009 GAA.

Higher Education

The Conference Committee report, like both the House and Senate budgets, uses a combination of state and ARRA funding to ensure that all state and community colleges receive funding equal to their FY 2009 GAA appropriation. The Conference Report funds the University of Massachusetts at the Senate level of $492.3 million, identical to the FY 2009 GAA, but $900,000 below the final House budget level. However, the Conference Report includes within the UMass line item an earmark for $2.7 million for the College of Visual and Performing arts at UMass Dartmouth. In FY 2009, this $2.7 million item had a separate earmark, meaning that in effect the UMass line item receives a cut of $2.7 million from the FY 2009 GAA level.

Like the Senate budget, the Conference Report does not include line items for either the Commonwealth College or the Toxic Use Reduction Institute, both at UMass. While line item language requires each of these programs to be funded in FY 2010, no funding level is specified. The House budget included $4.7 million for these two programs.

The Conference Report provides $87.9 million in funding for the state’s scholarship programs, lower than the funding level in either the House appropriation of $92.9 million or Senate appropriation of $89 million. Like the Senate budget, the Conference Report gives responsibility for the state’s McNair Scholarship program to the Massachusetts Educational Finance Authority. The McNair scholarship program provides funding for students attending public colleges with serious physical disabilities. The Conference Report does include a new $1 million line item, not included in the House or Senate budgets, that reimburses public colleges for waiving college fees for adopted and foster children.