Is $60 million in rural school funding necessary? Four years after the Special Commission on Rural School Districts issued this recommendation, Franklin County education officials are continuing to push for full funding and substantiate the need.
A renewed call for the $60 million comes following a July 22 letter that Pioneer Valley Regional School District Superintendent Patricia Kinsella wrote to state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Pedro Martinez and Secretary of Education Stephen Zrike, saying it had come to her attention that “senior leadership” at DESE and the Executive Office of Education have “asserted for the past four years” that the $60 million recommendation for rural school aid “does not have a basis in fact.”
The letter states the assertion has been “repeatedly made to state officials at the highest levels, including the governor’s office.”
“The rural superintendents who know of these assertions feel blindsided,” Kinsella’s letter reads. “I am confident that I speak for my colleagues across the commonwealth in expressing my dismay, and I will share this letter with them.”
Kinsella shared her letter with rural school superintendents across the state, along with Sen. Jo Comerford, Rep. Susannah Whipps, the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, and Martha Thurber and Jessica Corwin of the MASC’s Rural Schools Committee.
In particular, Thurber described a private meeting that she and Corwin had earlier this summer with DESE officials, in which a DESE staffer, who Thurber said was involved with developing the rural schools report, stated that the $60 million figure was not verifiable.
“We were taken aback by that because it’s been a number we’ve been relying on,” she said.
Echoing Thurber, Corwin said it was “disheartening and surprising” to hear there was doubt about the needs rural schools have.
“We’ve had at least 30 different people involved since we started two and a half years ago, and each of us brings our own local networks,” Corwin said about the work of their Rural Schools Committee. “We’ve spent hundreds, if not thousands, of people-hours since 2022 advocating based on that $60 million figure.”
Although they declined to identify the specific staffer, Thurber said the experience raised questions about whether the perspective could be more widespread on the state level. Kinsella added that she is aware of at least two state education officials, between DESE and the Executive Office of Education, who have questioned the report’s findings.
Thurber added that she does not think rural schools are “at odds” with DESE, but she believes there’s a chance for further discussion on how the state can support rural schools.
“While what was said was not good, the outcome has been positive,” Thurber said. “There are ongoing conversations, and I think that DESE is getting the point that people in western Massachusetts and rural school districts are upset. … They have a better idea of our needs.”
In Kinsella’s letter, she shares three actions the state can take to “address this rupture,” including requiring the education officials who have disputed the findings to place their concerns in a public memo, hiring an independent financial analyst to review the research from the report’s recommendations, and convene a meeting of rural superintendents and school committee members to discuss their experiences and share suggestions.
Kinsella said that since she sent her letter to state officials, she’s met with Secretary of Education Stephen Zrike, and she feels Zrike understands the issue. Since that meeting, Kinsella emphasized that plans are in place for an Oct. 13 gathering of local education officials, state representatives and state education officials, including Zrike and Martinez, to review the issues facing rural schools.
When asked about local officials’ concerns that the need for rural school aid is being downplayed, a spokesperson with the Executive Office of Education, which Zrike oversees, stated simply that every student should have access to quality education, regardless of where they live. The spokesperson highlighted that rural school funding “has nearly tripled” under Gov. Maura Healey’s administration, alongside increases to transportation and special education spending, and a fully funded Student Opportunity Act.
“In addition, Secretary Zrike has met with local and school leaders in rural communities, and looks forward to visiting rural school districts this fall to learn more about how we can best support them,” the statement concludes.
The budget from former Gov. Charlie Baker’s final year in office, fiscal year 2023, set rural school aid at $5.5 million. For fiscal year 2027, the approved state budget includes $16 million for rural school aid, representing an increase of $4 million from FY26, but still $4 million less than what the governor recommended in her initial proposal prior to Senate and House of Representatives consideration.
The FY27 budget also includes $7.66 billion in Chapter 70 aid to public school districts, an increase of $297 million over fiscal year 2026. The amount slated to come to Franklin County towns and regional school districts is $67.4 million, representing an approximately $1.9 million increase over FY26.
When Martinez’s office was asked for comment, DESE reiterated the statement sent by the Executive Office of Education, and added that Martinez is looking forward to visiting rural schools this fall to “learn more about how we can best support them.”
Report details
The 2022 report by the Special Commission on Rural School Districts identified five main challenges impacting rural schools, with a lack of economic resources and declining enrollment being seen as the main factors negatively impacting districts in Berkshire, Franklin and Hampshire counties.
One of the key recommendations the commission made was to increase rural school aid to $60 million. At the time, commission Co-Chair Natalie Blais said the $4 million in rural school aid in FY22 was not sufficient to be distributed across the 67 school districts who were eligible to receive it, shaking out to just $59,701 per district — a sum that wouldn’t even cover a teacher’s salary with benefits.
The report explains how the $60 million figure was developed. According to the report, a 2018 DESE study of rural schools identified a 12.4% spending gap between rural and non-rural school districts for in-district students, and the average FY20 in-district spending for students enrolled in non-vocational districts was $17,293. This amount was multiplied by 12.4%, identifying a per-pupil gap of $2,144. That number was then multiplied by the 27,219 students attending rural districts as of the 2018 DESE study, which discovered a spending gap of $58.4 million.
The rounded $60 million figure has become a touchstone for local advocates and lawmakers in discussing what can be done to support rural districts. In March, rural schools participated in the “Rural and Declining Enrollment Schools Week of Action,” where the top priorities were to get rural school aid fully funded at $60 million annually.
More work to be done
Moving forward, Thurber said education officials are working to not only verify the $60 million figure, but also to calculate what the number would be now, given it has been a few years since the report was issued and school operating costs have continued to rise.
Thurber added that while conversations are promising, she and other rural school leaders “need to see some action.”
“They can come up with $60 million for rural kids who have been left in the dust for some time,” Thurber said.
In reflecting on the state’s movement toward fully funding rural school aid, Corwin feels that the doubt being cast by state education officials explains the “very little progress” made on the issue despite the widespread advocacy.
“The way to repair trust is to take action to support rural schools,” Corwin said, “to show that they believe us, and our true needs.”
Responding to the situation, Comerford, D-Northampton, said she called a meeting with DESE leadership to discuss her own “concern and deep upset” over the alleged statements about the rural schools report. She described the meeting as an “intense conversation.”
Still, Comerford noted, “we have to acknowledge there have been significant gains” for rural schools. The senator highlighted a few progress points, including reviving the Foundation Budget Review Commission to review the Chapter 70 formula, which calculates how much state aid will be allocated to each municipality for education. She also referenced a $16.5 million grant program for districts to explore regionalization and shared services.
Even with some of these gains, Comerford made it clear: “There’s still significantly more work to be done.”
Madison Schofield contributed reporting.
