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MTA President says Ways and Means budget takes steps in the right direction

MTA President Catherine A. Boudreau today expressed appreciation to the Senate Ways and Means Committee for joining the House in restoring some of the cuts made previously to preK-12 public schools and public higher education. But she warned that "full and adequate funding for education will not be possible until we deal with the state's structural deficit by raising new revenues."

"We're headed in the right direction," Boudreau said, citing the $78 million hike in Chapter 70 aid proposed by both the committee and the House. "But we've still got a long way to go before last year's cut to Chapter 70 of $148 million is restored."

She also noted that the Ways and Means plan provides $24.7 million less than the House-passed budget for charter school reimbursements. She called this "a penalty our already strapped schools cannot bear" and "a strong argument for reinstating the moratorium on charter schools." A moratorium was contained in the House budget, but the Senate Ways and Means plan does not include one.

Boudreau also said she was disappointed that neither the committee plan nor the House budget restores funding to the class size reduction program and other valuable initiatives that help young children learn.

She called the Ways and Means Committee's higher education budget "a mixed bag with, again, some movement in the right direction."

The Ways and Means Committee, like the House, has included money to fund the contracts of the 13,000 higher education employees who had waited more than two years for their raises. Boudreau lauded committee members for taking that step.

However, she noted that while the committee and House budgets provide the campuses with modest increases over FY04, "the Legislature has not dealt adequately with the crippling 21 percent cut to public higher education made over the past three years." In citing that figure, Boudreau alluded to cuts totaling $223 million in actual, non-inflation-adjusted dollars.

"The Ways and Means budget represents a significant improvement over the one proposed earlier this year by Governor Mitt Romney," she stated. "But public education is paying the price because of  the simple fact that our state faces a continuing $1.5 billion deficit as a result of our history of unwise tax cuts."

Boudreau pointed to the recent ruling by Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford, which held that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to adequately fund public schools.

"It is clear what needs to be done," Boudreau concluded. "We must raise the revenues -- and until we do, students in our schools and our public higher education system will not receive the opportunities they need and deserve."