In 2019, Massachusetts passed a long overdue update to the state’s funding formula for aid to local public school districts (“Chapter 70”) via the Student Opportunity Act.

However, our public schools are losing out on the full benefits of increased funding due to a glitch in how the Chapter 70 formula treats inflation.

The funding formula caps inflation in calculating year-to-year funding increases at 4.5%. However, we have seen several years of high inflation. The costs for our schools are rising, but the state’s support is not keeping pace. Indeed, the gap in funding schools faced in FY 2025 was $465 million. Cuts mean fewer teachers, fewer counselors, fewer classroom resources.

This wasn’t how the formula was originally designed. When it was first passed in the early 1990s, the state would catch up with funding in low-inflation years to account for this discrepancy in high-inflation years. Our cities and towns could plan better, and our students could get what they need. But a technical change made a decade later eliminated that common-sense arrangement.

The Solution

New legislation (H.678 / S.388), titled An Act to fix the Chapter 70 inflation adjustment would fix the glitch in how the state’s education funding formula treats inflation, enabling funding to catch up again in lower-inflation years to make up for lost funding in high-inflation years.

How You Come In

The Joint Education Committee has a hearing on Monday, May 12. Send in testimony in support of these bills!