EDITORIAL: Improving the Local Aid Formula & Funding Education

The current budget situation in Saugus is divisive to a good community.

The School Committee recently approved a budget increase of $2.5 million over last year’s budget. The Town Administration initially offered the School Department a budget increase of $450,000. The budget has since been bumped up to $960,000 by Town Administration to avoid personnel layoffs. To do this, the Town Manager had to under fund other line items giving Saugus a built-in deficit in its overall budget. Further, other departments are in desperate need of funding, for example the Saugus Public Library is only $141,000 away from recertification.

Situations like these force departments to wrestle for money while forcing residents to take sides. It creates conflict between neighbors of different income levels. It creates conflict between young families and the elderly. It pits residents against public officials. It is a situation that can weaken a town, its image and its residents' confidence. It is wrong and a direct result of the way Beacon Hill disburses state funds.

In Wakefield two years ago, the School Committee requested a budget larger than the one recommended by the Town Administration. It was this divisive no win budget battle that forced me to do some research. What I found disturbed me greatly, and was ultimately one of the reasons that inspired me to run for State Rep.

Saugus, like Wakefield, receives less Ch. 70 education funding from the State than most neighboring communities.

Saugus, a town with a population of 26,000, receives $4.1 million a year from the state.

But Reading, a town with a population of 23,000, receives $9.0 million.

This would not be so unsettling if Reading was an anomaly among neighboring communities or if it received more local aid for some justifiable reason.

But Melrose, one of Saugus’ closest neighbors receives $7.4 million a year.

Andover receives $7.3 million. North Andover receives $5.4 million.

Even North Reading, a town half the size of Saugus with a population of 13,000, receives close to two million dollars more than Saugus i. e. $6 million from the State.

In the entire 9th Essex, only Lynnfield with a population of 12,000, receives less than Saugus i.e. $4.0 million. That’s only $100,000 less than Saugus.

To depict this more clearly:

Reading: $9.0 million

Melrose: $7.4 million

Andover: $7.3 million

North Reading: $6.0 million

North Andover: $5.4 million

Wakefield: $4.8 million

Saugus: $4.1 million

Lynnfield: $4.0 million

If Saugus received what Reading did the school department budget would have their $ 2.5 million increase and the other town departments would have another $ 2.5 million for much needed improvements.

The reasoning behind this inequitable local aid funding formula is a series of convoluted formulas that have not been updated in 16 years. For example, the following text comes straight from the Department of Education website attempting to explain just one part of the formula:

“A district’s foundation budget is derived by multiplying the number of pupils in fourteen enrollment categories by cost rates in eleven functional areas.”

One of my top priorities will be changing this formula so that Saugus and all communities receive their fair share of local aid. I would do so by working with other legislators and the governor to simplify the formula, focusing on student population and only factoring in certain costs such as special education.

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