School districts in Franklin County have been emphasizing for years that the Chapter 70 formula, which calculates how much state aid will be allocated to each municipality for education, does not work for rural communities, and an aspect of the governor’s budget includes a glimmer of hope.
In the fiscal year 2027 budget that was signed by Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday, legislators agreed to revive the Foundation Budget Review Commission to examine the K-12 funding formula and look at how the state can address the rising costs of education, particularly in the areas of special education, student transportation, personnel and employee health care.
The commission was last active 10 years ago, when its final report in 2015 recommended increasing funding for Chapter 70 by $432 million.
While reviving the Foundation Budget Review Commission does not guarantee changes to the Chapter 70 formula, Patricia Kinsella, superintendent of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, said it’s terrific news.
“We’re excited about that, for sure,” agreed Sheryl Stanton, superintendent of the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont Regional school districts.
Kinsella explained that the formula over-relies on student enrollment as a metric to determine which districts need more funding. In rural communities and those with declining enrollment, fixed costs such as staff health insurance and retirement benefits continue to rise, while declining enrollment creates stagnant state aid.
“Chapter 70 in part is the story of unforeseen consequences,” Kinsella said.
She added that rural districts cannot achieve the same economies of scale as larger districts, and studies have shown that “it simply costs more to run rural schools.”
With “relatively flat” state aid, the cost burden for running rural schools falls on the municipalities, noted Darius Modestow, superintendent of the Frontier Regional and Union 38 school districts.
“We’re asking more and more of our communities to be paying the increases and not the state,” Modestow said. “How long can the small communities continue to be able to support their schools?”
Jessica Corwin, chair of the Sunderland Elementary School Committee, a Frontier Regional School Committee member and co-chair of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC)’s Rural Schools Committee, called for a “sparsity factor” in the Chapter 70 formula to account for the higher cost of providing a “basic education” at rural schools.
“Rural towns have been struggling for decades with declining enrollment and little growth in our state funding to meet our constitutional and moral obligations to our students,” Corwin said. “We really need the state to step up and recognize this intense hardship.”
In the FY27 budget, state legislators agreed to fully fund the Student Opportunity Act, which was a result of the 2015 report. The FY27 budget includes $7.66 billion in Chapter 70 aid to public school districts, an increase of $297 million over fiscal year 2026.
For FY27, the governor’s approved budget includes $67.4 million for Franklin County towns and regional school districts, an increase of approximately $1.9 million over FY26.
State Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, who serves as vice chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, said in a statement that reviving the Foundation Budget Review Commission is a step toward ensuring the Chapter 70 formula reflects the distinct needs of rural communities.
“This budget proposal reflects the Legislature’s deep commitment to a commonwealth where every community can thrive,” Comerford said. “By reviving the Foundation Budget Review Commission, the Legislature is taking an essential step toward a more equitable school funding formula that recognizes the unique challenges facing rural and regional districts. This budget also delivers critical support for rural communities, affirming that our small towns and regional economies are vital to the strength and future of Massachusetts.”
Kinsella mentioned that more than 200 school districts in the state are considered in hold harmless, a state policy provision in state aid formulas meant to restrict declines in revenue for school districts. However, while the provision is designed to guarantee districts don’t see large decreases in state aid, it also means that districts do not see increases in aid to keep up with rising expenses.
“Hold harmless is not the solution, and it hasn’t been for the past 25 years,” Stanton said.
Along with sparsity, Stanton said she hopes the Foundation Budget Review Commission will take into account low enrollment as well as employment, noting that it is difficult to hire staff in small rural districts because part-time employees can be hard to find, but the district may not need a full-time worker for some roles.
Kinsella added that she would like Chapter 70 to be looked at in conjunction with other portions of the budget, noting that how towns fund their school is impacted by other needs and costs. Equitably funding other programs such as transportation, or compensating for state-owned land within a town, could allow municipalities to dedicate more money toward education.
“We are arguing if the state is going to look at Chapter 70, they need to look at how it interacts with other sections of the budget,” Kinsella said. “I would hope a Chapter 70 commission would have its main purpose, but it would also look at PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes agreements) and transportation funding as well.”
Modestow described the difficulty of drafting a school budget when state funding for programs like special education, transportation, rural aid and others fluctuate each year.
Although he feels encouraged by the Foundation Budget Review Commission looking at the Chapter 70 formula, he said he is also realistic about the outcome.
“Likely, there’s going to be winners and losers,” Modestow said. “Any changes will involve difficult political conversations and tradeoffs among communities with very different needs. There isn’t going to be a windfall of money, but there can be more transparent, predictable and accurate funding that reflects the cost of a quality public education and the community’s ability to fund those costs.”
Deerfield Selectboard member Tim Hilchey serves on the grassroots organization Rural Schools Advocacy in Massachusetts that Corwin helped start in 2023.
“Any time you open a formula, there’s always a possibility that the outcome is not going to be optimal,” Hilchey said, echoing Modestow’s sentiments. “But when things are already falling apart, you’re left with few options.”
Modestow, Kinsella and Corwin agreed that any changes by the commission would take years to be implemented, which is why rural educators are advocating for rural school aid to be fully funded at $60 million as their No. 1 legislative priority.
For FY27, the approved budget includes $16 million for rural school aid. According to the conference report, the House budget originally set rural aid at $10 million, and the Senate set it at $16 million. The two chambers ultimately agreed to $16 million, representing an increase of $4 million from FY26.
“Rural schools desperately need those updates and we really don’t have time to keep delaying this process. We need both short-term and long-term relief, and this is the first step at long-term relief,” Corwin said. “We’ve been begging for this, not just waiting.”
Johnny Depin contributed reporting.
