Senate seen as last hope

Education advocates, union leaders and parents shifted their focus to the Senate on Tuesday after House lawmakers rejected efforts to add up to $200 million in additional funding for K-12 schools and universities to next year’s budget, hoping they can convince senators that the state can afford to make additional investments in public education.

The House on Monday night turned down several amendments that would have boosted local aid for public schools to account for the expected post-pandemic rebound in student enrollment this coming September.

While the House budget proposal provided more K-12 funding than recommended by Gov. Charlie Baker, advocates said it still falls short of the commitment made by the Student Opportunity Act because it fails to fully account for the possibility that many of the more than 31,000 students who left the school system over the past year could return in the fall.

“The House decision was deeply disappointing,” said Vatsady Sivongxay, the mother of a kindergarten student and executive director of Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance.

After pausing the implementation of the 2019 Student Opportunity Act in fiscal 2021 due to the pandemic, House leaders said their budget would put the funding schedule back on track by funding one-sixth of the reforms that were originally intended to be paid over seven years.

Based on an agreement struck between House and Senate leaders earlier this month, the House Ways and Means budget funded Chapter 70 at over $5.5 billion, an increase of $219.6 million over fiscal 2021.

Leaders of the two branches also agreed to create $40 million reserve to help districts severely impacted by a decline in enrollment over the past year. The Legislature’s plan, however, would spread out the delayed funding from this year for the Student Opportunity Act over six years, instead of catching up all at once, and is predicated on waiting to see whether children return to the classroom this fall.