On Sept. 1, voters in the 1st Franklin District will be voting for someone to fill the huge hole left by the departure of former Rep. Natalie Blais. This election is critically important to voters concerned about the state’s chronic under-funding of rural schools and the impact of that under-funding on town budgets. Fortunately, there is one candidate running who has long been at the forefront of fighting for rural funding equity — Corinne Coryat.
As Rep. Blais’ chief aide, Corinne worked at her side in drafting the Legislature’s 2022 report on the fiscal health of rural schools, which called for an annual rural aid appropriation of at least $60 million, and fighting for legislation to implement the report’s recommendations. However, annual rural aid is only one part of the solution for rural districts. The state’s formula for distributing billions in regular education aid puts small rural districts at a structural disadvantage by basing the allocation purely on the number of students enrolled in each district, without any regard for the fixed costs of actually operating a school. At long last, the Legislature has agreed to revisit this outdated formula, and our state representative must be ready on Day 1 to advocate effectively for provisions that recognize the realities of educating children in small rural districts.
Corinne Coryat is ready. She has worked with state legislative leaders, she understands how the Legislature works (or doesn’t work), and she knows how to get things done — not just for rural school districts, but for rural towns and rural taxpayers.
As chair of the Mohawk Trail Regional School District School Committee and co-chair of the Rural Schools Committee of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, I have been fighting for rural school equity for more than 10 years. Today, I am cautiously optimistic that top-level state administrators and key legislators may be — finally, finally — paying attention to the crisis in rural schools. We must take advantage of this opportunity.
We need a state representative who is experienced and fully prepared to hit the ground running. We cannot fail to meet this moment.
I hope you will join me in voting for Corinne Coryat on Sept. 1.
Martha Thurber lives in Buckland.