School Finance

December 3, 2010

Missed Opportunity For School Cost Saving

The December 1 deadline has passed, and not one new municipality or school district signed on to provide employee health benefits through the state’s Group Insurance Commission (GIC) in fiscal 2012 – which means that hundreds of local government entities […]
December 9, 2010

Why Are Massachusetts Schools so Cash Strapped?

This morning, MBAE issued School Funding Reality: A Bargain Not Kept, our report on school funding and spending trends in Massachusetts.  We did the study to look at how the foundation budget was working and found that the explosive growth […]
March 24, 2014

The New Opportunity to Lead

In the Constitution adopted in 1780 and in force today, the people of Massachusetts recognized that the “opportunities and advantages of education” were “necessary for the preservation of their rights had liberties,” and directed the representatives of the people to […]
November 4, 2015

Foundation Budget Review Commission Issues Final Report

The Foundation Budget Review Commission completed its work of the past year and released its recommendations to the legislature on Monday, November 2, 2015. The most significant recommendation was to increase the foundation budget allocation for health insurance by linking […]
November 12, 2015

Time to Move to PARCC

The Mass Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will make a major decision regarding standardized testing for the Commonwealth next Tuesday, November 17th. Massachusetts led standards-based education reform twenty years ago by establishing the highest set of education standards in the […]
January 27, 2016

Common Core and Other Hot Topics

In this issue:  Common Core Ballot Question Threatens Student Progress | Beacon Hill Focus on Education | Helping Mentors Prepare Kids for College/Career MBAE, through our Future Ready initiative, is a proud member of the Alliance for Vocational Technical Education, […]
March 23, 2016

Harvard on Common Core

In this issue:  Harvard Study Shows Educator Support for Common Core | MBAE Supports Vocational-Technical Education Proposals | News Worth Highlighting “I firmly believe that the Common Core State Standards provide a strong foundation for a high quality STEM education,” […]
July 1, 2016

SJC Overturns AG’s Certification of Common Core Ballot Question

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a ruling today in favor of the ten plaintiffs who appealed the Attorney General’s certification of the ballot measure that would repeal the common core education standards in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Business Alliance for […]
October 20, 2016

“The missing piece of education reform”

In this guest article featured in the most recent issue of Commonwealth Magazine, Ed Moscovitch, chairman and co-founder of the Bay State Reading Institute, presents a detailed discussion of a “key finding about superintendents and principals” and its “enormous implications […]
October 27, 2016

“Why Massachusetts schools beat Rhode Island”

This article from the Providence Journal, comparing the differences between Massachusetts’s and Rhode Island’s education reforms, makes reference to the early work of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education under Jack Rennie’s vision and leadership. It also states that “test […]
July 25, 2017

MBAE Position on Proposed Increases in State Education Funding

July 25, 2017 – The legislature is considering bills that would dramatically increase state funding for K-12 schools.  Yet, our problem is not just how much money is allocated, but also how money is spent.  Our current school funding system […]
July 28, 2017

Computer Science, School Finance and Summer Reading

In this issue: Prevalence of Tech Jobs in MA Requires K-12 Adjustments | School Finance Topic of Joint Committee on Education Hearing | Summer Reading Congratulations to the Boston Public Schools and Boston Afterschool and Beyond for being selected to receive […]
March 29, 2018

Federal law requires reporting of per pupil spending by school

Amidst the current debate about school funding in Massachusetts and growing calls for spending more, comes a potentially game-changing new federal requirement that will bring greater transparency to school spending.  The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed with bi-partisan support […]
May 30, 2018

A Model for School Funding Reforms

The Denver Public School’s recently released budget document, the Budget Transparency Guidebook, provides detailed information about how the district spends its money, breaking down how much goes directly to schools, how much is spent centrally and for what services, and […]
June 20, 2018

Our position on proposals to increase school funding

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled this week that the “Millionaires Tax” does NOT meet the requirements to appear on the November ballot eliminating the possibility of billions of new revenue for education and transportation. We don’t expect, however, that […]
August 1, 2018

Legislature Fails to Reach Consensus on School Spending

There were high expectations that the legislature would act on findings of the 2015 Foundation Budget Review Commission (FBRC) to adjust the foundation budget for health insurance, special education, English Language Learners and low income students to increase funding by […]
January 25, 2019

Governor’s education proposals a positive step

MBAE believes the Governor’s education budget and legislative proposal is a positive step toward achieving the goals we’ve stated of: 1) equitable funding, and 2) continued reform of our education system to close achievement and skills gaps. With respect to […]