Charter School clarifications on Franklin FY 2020 budget impact

The Charter School provides some clarifications on the projected budget impact statements reported by the Town of Franklin and the Public Schools:

"As you may have seen recently in the local print and in social media, BFCCPS has been listed as the main driver of the budget deficit for the Franklin Public School system. Many current and former parents and faculty have shown great support for BFCCPS on social media over the last few weeks. 

Please know that several pieces of information that have been reported are inaccurate. For example, while various articles report 258 new students attending our school next year; only 95 students from Franklin have accepted offers of enrollment for the 2019-2020 school year. As we have 31 grade eight students who will be attending Franklin High School next year, the true impact is only a net of 64 new students attending BFCCPS from the town of Franklin next year. Additionally, articles have repeatedly indicated that our expansion includes a High School offering. We have no plans to expand to grades 9-12. 

When we began our expansion process in 2012, we were intentional in designing our region to have a lessening impact on the town of Franklin. In fact, next year, even with expansion, we will enroll fewer children from the Town of Franklin than before we became a regional school in the 2015-2016 school year."

Continue reading the full write up on the Charter School page
http://bfccps.org/clarification-on-the-impact-of-bfccps-on-the-franklin-public-school-systems-budget/?doing_wp_cron=1556970363.0868589878082275390625

The Town of Franklin has updated their memo that incorrectly reported the expansion would include grades 9-12.  The updated memo can be found online
https://www.franklinma.gov/sites/franklinma/files/uploads/fy20_budget_forecast_and_beyond_0.pdf

Per the Charter School the enrollment increase projected for Franklin should be less than shown in the Dept of Local Service Cherry Sheet estimates but until the numbers flow through the State, the budget impact to Franklin is still a significant increase over prior years ('significant' is currently shown at $1M).

DLS Cherry Sheet estimates:

The 'cherry sheet' reflects the local aid coming to Franklin or assessed against Franklin. Chapter 70 is the school aid. There are also lines shown for the charter school ins and outs.

I have filtered on the DLS page to select Franklin and export to create the PDF shown here. You can view the info online
https://dlsgateway.dor.state.ma.us/reports/rdPage.aspx?rdReport=CherrySheets.CSbyProgMunis.MuniBudgEst




Bottom line: the school funding calculations provided by the State short change all Franklin students, period. There should not be a charter vs. public school debate. We should be united in getting a more realistic funding formula. Why? Whatever is allocated for the Franklin Public School students will flow to the charter school students, so if there is more for one there will be more for the other. If the public school budget is cut (as it will be this year), the Charter School student will ultimately see that (in some manner - I am not an expert on State funding flows, but from my experience that is what will likely happen).

Horace Mann statue in downtown Franklin, the father of public education

MassBudget: Analyzing the Governor's FY 2020 budget proposal

Includes some new revenues, accompanied by modest plan to update education funding

MassBudget    Information.    Participation.  Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center    Democracy. February 5, 2019 Analyzing the Governor's FY 2020 budget proposal Proposal includes some new revenues, accompanied by modest plan to update education funding The Governor's Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget proposal provides modest increases in funding for public education, human services, and several other important investments. This new funding does not, in many cases, reverse deep cuts imposed across the state budget after the tax cuts of the late 1990s and early 2000s - despite a decade of expansion in the economy. Lost revenue from tax cuts has limited the Commonwealth's ability to adequately fund education, infrastructure, and other building blocks of healthy communities and a strong economy. While the Governor's proposal would increase year over year funding for several programs, it provides the same or less funding for programs such as Public Health, Local Aid, Juvenile Justice, Transitional Assistance, and others, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget). The Governor's proposal recommends 16 percent less funding for Early Education and Care compared to FY 2001 (adjusting for inflation). Funding for Local Aid is similarly down 38 percent and Environment and Recreation programs remain 29 percent below 2001 levels. Making the necessary investments in our schools, transportation, housing, and other essential programs will require bold, new revenue sources. Tax revenue growth was unusually strong in FY 2018 and may continue to be strong for most of FY 2019. The Department of Revenue expects that, without policy changes to increase revenue, overall revenue growth will slow markedly in FY 2020 - putting a strain on our capacity to support public programs and invest in infrastructure. While the Governor's FY 2020 budget proposal includes a variety of new and expanded taxes and other revenues, a number of previously-scheduled tax cuts and other revenue-losing policy changes will take a significant bite out of revenue totals in FY 2020 and beyond. Much of the additional revenue proposed by the Governor would come from a variety of consumption taxes, which typically are regressive (meaning people with lower incomes contribute a larger share of their household incomes toward these taxes than do people with higher incomes). Meanwhile, the tax revenue reductions mostly come from progressive revenue sources. Therefore, these proposals do not help turn Massachusetts' upside-down tax system right-side up. The Governor's proposal is accompanied by a plan to overhaul Massachusetts' school funding formula that could help ensure that all schools, especially those in low-income districts, are adequately funded. The plan makes some progress, over a seven-year timeline, to implement the 2015 Foundation Budget Review Commission (FBRC) recommendations related to health insurance, special education, and greater support for low-income and English Language Learner students. However, without substantial, new revenues the Commonwealth can only adopt a moderate plan to implement the FBRC recommendations. The budget proposal includes other notable initiatives. For instance, the Governor proposes creating a trust fund to prevent childhood lead exposure and increasing the "Real Estate Transfer Tax" to invest in climate change adaptation. Further, the Governor proposes new systems for negotiating the cost of drugs used under MassHealth and expands eligibility for low-income elders to qualify for the Medicare Savings Plan. Read the full analysis here. http://massbudget.org/report_window.php?loc=Analyzing-the-Governor%27s-Budget-for-FY-2020.html The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) produces policy research, analysis, and data-driven recommendations focused on improving the lives of low- and middle-income children and adults, strengthening our state's economy, and enhancing the quality of life in Massachusetts. MASSACHUSETTS BUDGET AND POLICY CENTER 15 COURT SQUARE, SUITE 700 BOSTON, MA 02108

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screen grab of the MassBudget - Budget Browser

MassBudget: Video and Op-ed: Updating Education Funding and Helping Schools Better Serve All Children

January 23, 2018 Updating Education Funding and Helping Schools Better Serve All Children: Video Summary and Op-ed Students have the best chance of succeeding when their schools have the resources to educate them effectively. As Massachusetts lawmakers gear up for the Fiscal Year 2020 budget debate, many are working to overhaul the state's school funding formula - known as Chapter 70 - which determines how much state funding our schools receive to support necessities like teachers, materials, and facilities. When the formula falls short, communities with fewer resources are unable to make up the difference and their students' education suffers. A comprehensive update of the school funding formula, after five years, could mean as much as $1.1 billion in additional aid per year for Massachusetts schools, according to a new video  from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget). We further explore these ideas in an op-ed in Commonwealth Magazine. "The outdated formula does not reflect what it currently costs to provide a high-quality education. This has left many lower-wealth school districts with chronic understaffing, a return of class sizes of over 30 students, and fewer opportunities for our students to learn," said Colin Jones, Senior Policy Analyst and author of the report on which the video is based. In the video, Jones summarizes the findings of his report, Building an Education System that Works for Everyone, which explores some ways lawmakers could update the formula. "Even though Massachusetts has the most educated workforce in the nation, these opportunities are not reaching all our children. If we want to continue leading the country, we need to help close these opportunity gaps so all children can reach their full potential," said Marie-Frances Rivera, Interim President of MassBudget. Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYmABajkEzg  Read the Commonwealth Magazine op-ed here: https://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/ed-funding-problem-most-acute-in-low-income-communities/ The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) produces policy research, analysis, and data-driven recommendations focused on improving the lives of low- and middle-income children and adults, strengthening our state's economy, and enhancing the quality of life in Massachusetts. MASSACHUSETTS BUDGET AND POLICY CENTER 15 COURT SQUARE, SUITE 700 BOSTON, MA 02108

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MassBudget: FY 2019 state budget provides modest increases to early education, local aid

And a chance to give your feedback on our Budget Monitors

MassBudget    Information.    Participation.  Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center    Democracy. Sept. 6, 2018 FY 2019 state budget provides modest increases to early education, local aid And a chance to give your feedback on MassBudget's Budget Monitors, below With the national economy in the ninth year of an economic recovery, budget writers in Massachusetts were able this year to provide modest increases in funding for early education, local aid, and several other important investments. This new funding does not, in many cases, reverse the budget cuts imposed after the tax cuts of the late 1990s and early 2000s. After accounting for increases in this year's budget (and inflation) state spending on early education and care is down 17 percent since 2001. Funding for Local Aid is down 40 percent. And funding for Environment and Recreation programs is down 30 percent. The cost of tax cuts and the long-term trend in health care costs have limited the Commonwealth's ability to make investments in education, infrastructure, and other building blocks of healthy communities and a strong economy. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center's latest Budget Monitor finds that the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Budget (officially called the General Appropriations Act or GAA for short) includes several new initiatives, including the following: A restructuring and funding increase for adult mental health services. The reforms are aimed at providing more coordinated, standardized, and consistent treatment that will better align with health care systems, and will be more comprehensive, particularly for people who also have substance use disorders. An increase in the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), from 23 percent of the federal credit amount to 30 percent. Research has shown that - in addition to encouraging people to work and helping families to make ends meet - the EITC improves health outcomes for mothers and children, and boosts children's academic performance and lifelong earnings. A new process to provide greater scrutiny and reporting on "tax expenditures," which are special tax exemptions, deductions, credits, or other rules that result in forgone revenue with the intention of advancing other policy goals. The state will begin to evaluate the administration, fiscal impact, and cost-effectiveness of the Commonwealth's tax expenditures on a rotating schedule. For procedural reasons this section was ultimately enacted separately from the budget. While the Legislature overrode virtually all of the Governor's vetoes, one significant reform didn't survive the veto process: a proposal by the Legislature to remove a restriction that bars families from receiving Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) benefits for a child conceived while the family was receiving public assistance. The Budget Monitor at this link describes the final funding levels and significant policy initiatives in each major section of the budget. Links from the Table of Contents below allow readers to jump to specific sections. Each section also provides links to our online budget tools including our Budget Browser (which provides funding information for every line item in the state budget going back to FY 2001) and, where applicable, to our Children's Budget. We want to hear from you Our Budget Monitors provide extensive information on each budget proposal starting with the release of the Governor's budget in the winter through the entire legislative process until the final General Appropriations Act is signed into law in the summer. In order to make our Monitors useful to you, our readers, please fill out this short (one-minute) survey to let us know how you use our Monitor and how we might improve it. Thank you from the MassBudget Team. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) produces policy research, analysis, and data-driven recommendations focused on improving the lives of low- and middle-income children and adults, strengthening our state's economy, and enhancing the quality of life in Massachusetts. MASSACHUSETTS BUDGET AND POLICY CENTER 15 COURT SQUARE, SUITE 700 BOSTON, MA 02108

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Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center's latest Budget Monitor

MassBudget: Feeding Students, Counting Kids, Funding Schools

Six Recommendations for Improvement

Feeding Students, Counting Kids, Funding Schools: Six Recommendations for Improvement To expand educational opportunity by making sure that more students are well-fed and ready to learn, the federal government has created a program that allows schools to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students in districts with large numbers of low-income students. Schools that implement this program, called Community Eligibility, no longer collect paper forms from every child to determine who is eligible for free or reduced price meals. Instead, schools use a data matching system to count students as low income for school meals purposes when they are enrolled in other programs that support low-income families. This data-matching direct certification process improves efficiency and expands access to school meals. The interaction of this program and our school funding formula has, however, led to some challenges. MassBudget's new policy brief Counting Kids at School: 6 Steps to Better Numbers, presents strategies to fix these unintended consequences. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has recognized the challenges and has already made significant improvements to its data systems. At the direction of the Legislature, DESE is developing further recommendations, which will be final by December 19. Based on MassBudget's ongoing research on direct certification and its impact on Chapter 70 funding, this new brief presents six recommendations that could help the Commonwealth to achieve a more accurate count of low-income students. You can read MassBudget's six recommendations in the new policy brief HERE (link). Related MassBudget resources: To read about implementation of the Direct Certification program in Massachusetts, read Direct Certification for School Meals: Feeding Students, Counting Kids, Funding Schools. MassBudget's Children's Budget provides a concise description and funding history of the School Food Programs and Chapter 70 Aid. See the Kids Count Data Center data on Free and Reduced Price Lunch Enrollment Rates by School District and Economically Disadvantaged Students by School District. For MassBudget's video and explanation of the Chapter 70 program, see Demystifying the Chapter 70 Funding Formula: How the Massachusetts Education Funding System Works. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) produces policy research, analysis, and data-driven recommendations focused on improving the lives of low- and middle-income children and adults, strengthening our state's economy, and enhancing the quality of life in Massachusetts. MASSACHUSETTS BUDGET AND POLICY CENTER 15 COURT SQUARE, SUITE 700 BOSTON, MA 02108

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