While in past weeks we have tackled tax rates, average tax bills and taxes per person, this week we are switching gears and talking about Chapter 70 Aid.
According to the Department of Education, in Massachusetts, the definition of an adequate spending level for a school district is called its "foundation budget." It is a statistical measure that was developed by a group of superintendents and an economist in the early 1990's.
"The goal of the Chapter 70 formula is to ensure that every district has sufficient resources to meet its foundation budget spending level, through an equitable combination of local property taxes and state aid," according to the DOE.
Each district's foundation budget is updated each year to reflect inflation and changes in enrollment.
The FY12 statewide average is $9,729 per pupil, but the range for academic districts is from $7,988 in Marion to $11,539 in Boston. Vocational districts, whose programs are more expensive, range from $13,959 to $16,975.
Locally, Lawrence's per pupil expenditure is the highest at $10,674 whereas Lexington is the least at $1,132.
| Community | FY '12 Foundation Enrollment |
FY '12 Chap. 70 Aid | FY '12 Per Pupil |
| Andover | 6,050 | $6,928,057 | $1,145 |
| Billerica | 5,837 | $17,375,576 | $2,977 |
| Chelmsford | 5,321 | $9,880,853 | $1,857 |
| Dracut | 4,040 | $17,721,840 | $4,387 |
| Haverhill | 7,582 | $35,966,744 | $4,744 |
| Lawrence | 13,667 | $145,883,335 | $10,674 |
| Lexington | 6,228 | $7,051,517 | $1,132 |
| Littleton | 1,582 | $3,503,626 | $2,215 |
| Lowell | 14,402 | $121,658,718 | $8,447 |
| Methuen | 7,169 | $38,823,822 | $5,416 |
| North Andover | 4,550 | $6,124,740 | $1,346 |
| North Reading | 2,609 | $6,459,260 | $2,476 |
| Reading | 4,284 | $9,488,181 | $2,215 |
| Tewksbury | 3,955 | $12,317,499 | $3,114 |
| Wakefield | 3,391 | $4,794,886 | $1,414 |
| Westford | 5,086 | $15,861,400 | $3,119 |
Kevin
11:52 am on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Thank you for the information. If I understand this correctly, the information above only describes part of the school funding (chapter 70), and does not identify the town funding. I would be interested to understand the total FY'12 tax dollar per pupil (both town and state).
Maria Karafelis
12:49 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Kevin;
The BOS, Chelmsford School Committee and Finance Committee along with the Town Manager are having a combined meeting on Monday 1/30 at the school administration building at 7:00pm to review the FY13 budgets. It might be helpful if you attend or at least watch it televised. I find this meeting very informative and will be attending so I can better understand where we will be for FY13.
Timothy McIlvenna
7:10 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Kevin, if you go to the town website and search documents, look under Town Meeting, then 2011, then 2011 Spring Town Meeting, then FINCOM Spring Final. The Finance Committee assembles a book on the budget, in which the School Budget revenues and expenses are broken down, including all sources of funding (Town appropriations, grants, etc). Look at page 26 of the 2011 book (page 29 of the PDF) for actuals from (2010), the previous fiscal years budget - the year we were in (2011), and this fiscal years budget (2012). We assemble this complete picture as part of our responsibility under the Charter. So - coming in April (Ahead of the town meeting in late April), the book will show actuals from 2011, the current years budget, and the proposed FY2013 budget. In addition, the school committee always has an open budget hearing itself at its session, and then also presents at a finance committee hearing, both of which are televised.
https://backup.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=896c6588586372baa968
Cool Fusion
12:17 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Which is the reason that Lawrence has 23 voting places and Haverhill has 22 voting places .. and the combined number of total polling places adding both Andover and North Andover is? ... wait for it.. three (3). The combined population of Andover and North Andover is about the same as either of the forementioned city districts. The voters don't select their politicians.. the politicians select their voters.
Heather McNeil
2:45 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
You can also read an interesting report about the adequacy of the foundation budget at http://www.massbudget.org/report_window.php?loc=Cutting_Class.html. Things have changes since the 1990s. Also, our own superintendent just released his preliminary budget (http://www.northandoverpublicschools.com/) which will change as the town manager releases his version, the needs of the entire town are discussed, and more is known about the available funds from our town, the state, and feds. The best place to hear all of this information discussed is at FinCom meetings which are not televised but are very interesting to attend leading up to town meeting.
Andrew Sylvia
3:43 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Here in Westford, we did a story a few months ago on the fact that Massachusetts has a lower meals tax rate than New Hampshire, even in local excise towns (http://westford.patch.com/articles/the-massachusetts-tax-advantage)
Cool Fusion
6:20 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
What is the point of this non sequitur that catapulted into this article? Certainly, it's not to suggest the total taxes here are lower than those applied in NH or the business ranking in Mass (37) even starts to compare with NH (18)?
Andrew Sylvia
8:33 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
The point? I can tell you the point: there is no end to amount of great content on Patch, including in relation to the issue of taxes, whether it's my story, a story on tax benefits for parents in California (http://lagunaniguel.patch.com/articles/10-tax-benefits-for-parents), a new potential fuel tax mentioned in Iowa (http://johnston-ia.patch.com/articles/fuel-tax-could-be-on-the-horizon-for-iowa), or a blog on challenging property tax in New York state (http://fivetowns.patch.com/articles/property-taxes-and-what-you-can-do)
Keep on reading!
Jamison Tomasek
5:10 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Note that Lawrence's money went up $10M this year due to a significant increase in enrollment. It appears that many families are moving there, attracted by its lowest in the state MCAS scores.
Joe Veno
8:49 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Well said Andrew............
Tyler Jozefowicz
9:18 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Andrew: The subject is chapter 70 funding, not a panoply of tax issues. save that for another time ; otherwise this could get out of hand. Back to the subject. Chelmsford receives les per pupil funding under Chapter 70, for political reasons , not accounting reasons. Chelmsford votes Republican- McCain, Romney, Kerry-Healy, Scott Brown, Charlie Baker, etc. Beacon Hill is Democrat and notices this, ad chelmsford can't figure this out. Hello? Anyone home?
Jeff Hardy
8:12 am on Thursday, January 26, 2012
Tyler, not sure what you are saying. We should be forced to vote Democrat in order to be treated fairly. Kind of the tail wagging the dog. Maybe if our Democratic representation treated us fairly, they would get our votes.
Jon Pratt
10:32 pm on Wednesday, January 25, 2012
I;m surprise the Tech Schools are not included since their are fully funded rather than in district school which are restricted by local budgets