The Student Opportunity Act provides a major infusion of funding to Massachusetts public schools. The law – passed in 2019 with the backing of the MTA and the Fund Our Future Coalition – is by far the most significant update of the state education funding system since the Massachusetts Education Reform Act was enacted in 1993. The primary beneficiaries of this law are low-income students, students of color and English learners.
The law, Chapter 132 of the Acts of 2019, updates the foundation budget. A unique foundation budget is created for each district specifying the minimum level of education spending required to adequately educate the district’s students. The costs are shared between municipalities and the state. First, the state calculates how much a municipality must contribute, largely based on local income and property tax wealth. Next, the state determines the difference between the "required local contribution" and the foundation budget. State Chapter 70 aid is then allocated to make up that difference.
Under the Student Opportunity Act, a relatively small number of districts will spend more on their local schools than they otherwise would have, but the majority will not because they already contribute more than mandated. Most of the money under the act comes from the state. The Chapter 70 allocations exceed $1.4 billion over what the aid would have been without the SOA.
The act moves us closer to addressing the real costs of:
- Educating low-income students. The SOA defines low-income families as those whose incomes are at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, up from the current 133 percent. In addition, the law provides increased per-pupil funding above the baseline level depending on a community's concentration of poverty, ultimately providing twice as much funding – a 100 percent increment – for low-income students in districts with the highest concentrations.
- Educating special education students and English learners.
- Providing guidance and psychological services.
- Providing health insurance to employees and retirees.
The SOA adds another estimated $100 million annually by:
- Expanding special education circuit breaker reimbursements to include transportation costs and fixing an unintended side effect that reduces these reimbursements as the foundation budget increases ($90 million annually after four-year phase-in).
- Establishing a new grant program called the Twenty-First Century Education Trust Fund intended to support innovative programs ($10 million annually).
The SOA also set a three-year schedule to fully fund the charter school reimbursement line item, though it does not address the long-term impact of charter schools. Additionally, it lifts the annual cap on Massachusetts School Building Authority spending by $200 million — from $600 million to $800 million.
