Split in #PublicEducation Advocates? Wealthier Communities Who Benefit from #Casino Amendment Funding Fight Back

Veddy Interesting article in the Metro West Daily News with the title Framingham could win big with Casino Amendment.

A diverse group of public education advocates are struggling with this one and the amendment is creating a suburban/urban split among the usual liberal suspects who have been concerned with the long underfunded education formula for a loooong time. .

Proponents of a Senate casino amendment that would distribute education funds to some wealthier Massachusetts towns and cities fended off criticism yesterday, saying the plan is only fulfilling goals made by the state in 2006.

That year, the state set a budget formula for all school districts to use, with the state hoping to provide at least 17.5 percent of the money needed to support the budgets. But the state has struggled to make those payments, with 158 of 326 communities considered underfunded this year, when the state came up $113 million short.

The state money was distributed based on need, meaning poor communities received more than cities and towns with higher property tax revenues.

The gambling bill amendment looks to counteract that. Called Strengthening our Schools, the amendment gives underfunded districts priority when the extra money from casino revenue is doled out.

Public schools are due to get 14 percent of casino revenue under the amendment filed by Sen. Katherine Clark, D-Melrose, which is now being considered by a conference committee since it was passed by the Senate but not voted on in the House.

"It's more a matter of equity," said Sen. Michael Moore, D-Millbury. "The communities who aren't receiving any additional aid aren't because they're already receiving the promised amount."

..............................The amendment's many co-sponsors included Sens. James Eldridge, D-Acton, and Karen Spilka, D-Ashland. "People need to be clear that this money would not be available until after the casinos are built and revenue is coming into the state, which would take several years," Spilka said.

The amendment passed, 34-4, in the Senate, with Sens. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, Sonia Chang-Diaz, D-Boston, and Patricia Jehlen, D-Somerville, dissenting. "I hope that we will not be making educational policy in this forum," Jehlen said during debate on the amendment Oct. 11. "I ask that we refer this debate back to the Education Committee so we may do what's best for all of the children, not just what would benefit our particular communities."