Biz & Civic Leaders Sign Letter Asking That Any Deal on School Funding Include Measures that Lead to Better Outcomes

March 20, 2019 — Business, community, political and civic leaders from across the Commonwealth signed a letter delivered to Governor Baker, Senate President Spilka and House Speaker DeLeo today calling for a legislative solution on school funding that includes measures that will close achievement, opportunity and skills gaps.

The letter comes in advance of a Joint Committee on Education hearing at the state house on Friday, March 22 where legislators will hear testimony on several bills that have been filed dealing with school funding.

“Simply putting more money into a system that is failing far too many young people would be reckless,” said Edward Lambert, Jr., Executive Director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education.  “Crossing our fingers and hoping to get better results is not a strategy.  We’re hearing from folks all across the state who want to ensure that new funding closes achievement and skills gaps and who agree money alone won’t accomplish those goals.”   

“It’s essential for students that new funding lead to improvements,” said Rick Burnes, General Partner at Charles River Ventures.  “We know it’s possible to turn around underperforming schools, but it takes more than money, it takes new approaches.”          

“It’s unrealistic to expect that money alone will bring about the improvements that are urgently needed in Springfield Public Schools,” said Tricia Canavan, Chair of the Board of the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce and Co-Chair of Springfield Business Leaders for Education.  “We’ve seen boosts in funding before that have not led to improvement.”

The letter calls for new funding to be used effectively and efficiently stating that “Experience, research, and practice-based evidence (including evidence from bright spots of success in our state) have shown that just putting more money into the system — even when expressly for the purpose of addressing achievement gaps — does not get us improved outcomes.”