Our public schools and colleges are grappling with a historic fiscal crisis which threatens to undermine the quality of the finest public education system in the nation. As educators, parents, school committee members, students and others who testified at recent public hearings have made clear, we are all counting on the FY2027 budget to alleviate the impact of this crisis.

On May 5, the Senate Committee on Ways and Means released its FY2027 budget proposal, which acknowledges the financial pressures bearing down on school districts and campuses and proposes several important steps to begin to mitigate the harm. These include fulfilling the Student Opportunity Act, exceeding minimum student-aid increases from last year with a $160 per-pupil amount, adding funds for special education and increasing rural school aid.

Importantly, the proposal also calls for a reconvening of the Foundation Budget Review Commission (FBRC) to examine the true cost of providing a world-class education to every public school student and make recommendations to strengthen public school funding in the Commonwealth. The previous Foundation Budget Review Commission paved the way for passage of the Student Opportunity Act, the most significant improvement to education funding in decades.

As the FBRC moves forward, as we hope it does, there is still more that we can do together right now to ensure that all of our public schools and colleges have the resources they need to provide the high-quality education that every student in every district and at every campus deserves. That is why we are advocating for several amendments that would further strengthen the Senate’s proposal:

• Amendment #605 filed by Sen. John Cronin – Regional School Transportation
• Amendment #621 filed by Sen. Jake Oliveira - MASSGrant Plus – Amendment #700 filed by Sen. Joan Lovely
• Amendment #631 filed by Sen. Jake Oliveira – Strengthening the Special Education Circuit Breaker Program
• Amendment #634 filed by Sen. Jake Oliveira – State Universities Performance Based Funding Formula – Amendment #699 filed by Sen. Joan Lovely
• Amendment #638 filed by Sen. Liz Miranda – Retirement+ - Protecting Teacher Retirement System
• Amendment #641 filed by Sen. John Cronin, Amendment #608 filed by Sen. Bruce Tarr and Amendment #730 filed by Sen. Ryan Fattman – Increasing Minimum Per Pupil Aid to $200
• Amendment #648 filed by Sen. Paul Mark, Amendment #618 filed by Sen. Peter Durant and Amendment #731 filed by Sen. Ryan Fattman – Rural School Aid
• Amendment #654 filed by Sen. Lydia Edwards – In-District School Transportation
• Amendment #665 filed by Sen. Lydia Edwards - Community Schools Program
• Amendment #684 filed by Sen. Jake Oliveira – Community College Student SUCCESS Program
• Amendment #685 filed by Sen. Paul Mark - Public Institution Adjunct Faculty Advancement Reform
• Amendment #702 filed by Sen. Joan Lovely - Hunger-Free Campus Initiative
• Amendment #712 filed by Sen. Robyn Kennedy – Charter School Reimbursement
• Amendment #726 filed by Sen. Pavel Payano – Chapter 70: Inflation Adjustment
• Amendment #764 filed by Sen. Jake Oliveira – Whole Child Grant Program
• Amendment #449 filed by Sen. Adam Gomez - GLP-1 Coverage
• Amendment #861 filed by Sen. Nick Collins – Educator Pay

In addition, the MTA strongly opposes Amendment #714. This amendment would undermine our public education system by opting the Commonwealth into a federal school voucher program that was signed into law by President Trump as part of a budget reconciliation bill. We have serious concerns with this proposal, which is why we recently urged Governor Healey to not opt Massachusetts into this dangerous program that would drain significant funding from our public schools.

The Senate is set to begin debating its budget the week of May 18, so we ask that you write to your senator right away to urge them to co-sponsor and actively support these important amendments and to oppose Amendment #714 . We also ask that you call your senator to follow up on your email. You can find your senator’s phone number by clicking here.