On July 18, the House and Senate adopted their final version of the State Budget and forwarded it to Governor Cellucci. The Governor sent his vetoes on July 28th to the legislature for their consideration. The legislature adjourned for the year on July 31, except for the adoption of routine matters, after taking up a number of veto overrides.

Chapter 70: General Aid to Education

The proposed State Budget has added $187 million to Chapter 70 for FY2001. The Budget has also increased the so-called "minimum aid" to insure that school districts will not receive less than $175 per student in Chapter 70 funding in FY2001. The budget requires districts spend $125 per student of Chapter 70 aid for professional development expenditures.

Regional School Transportation

We are pleased that the legislature has proposed an increase in FY2001 funding for regional school transportation of $8 million, representing the final installment of a three-year
commitment to fully fund this program.

Major Changes to Special Education Law

As of January 1, 2002 the standard for the delivery of special education services will change from "maximum feasible benefit" to the federal standard of "free and appropriate public education." On January 1, 2001 the eligibility criteria will be tightened by adopting the federal categories of specific learning and emotional impairment. A sliding fee scale for independent evaluations will also go into effect at the same time. Families at 400% of the poverty level or less will be eligible for a free second opinion.

The so-called "circuit breaker" becomes effective on July 1, 2002, which establishes a new system for cost-sharing expensive in-district and out-of-district special education placements. Also, a pooled risk program to help school districts deal with extraordinary and unanticipated special education costs will go into effect in FY 2001.

School Building Assistance

Approximately $17 million of new funding has been included in the budget to fund desegregation school building projects for FY 2001. An additional sum of approximately $35 million has been added to the Budget to fund non-desegregation programs for FY 2001.

The Budget contains an extensive revision to the School Building Assistance program. MASC advocated for maintaining the School Building Assistance Bureau within the Department of Education rather than establish a separate authority. The Conference Committee agreed with our position. MASC is the only group outside of certain state officials to be included on the school building advisory board. The duties of the board include reviewing and commenting upon pending applications and ongoing projects.

The Board of Education will collect and maintain a clearinghouse of prototypical school plans that may be consulted by eligible applicants.

Priority will be given to the following categories:

• to replace or renovate buildings that are unsound or which jeopardize the health and safety of students;
• to eliminate severe overcrowding;
• to prevent loss of accreditation
• to prevent overcrowding due to anticipated increased enrollments
• to replace heating systems and to increase energy efficiencies;
• to address short-term enrollment growth;
• to replace or add to obsolete buildings and to transition from racial balance school districts to walk-to-schools.

School districts will be reimbursed by a formula that will range from 50% to 90%. Certain projects that have already been approved will receive funding that would have been available prior to the passage of this Act.

In addition to the changes found in Section 140 of the Budget there is language, in section 329, that would appear to "grandfather" projects based upon the following criteria:

• Projects placed on the priority list by 7/31/2000 (this would be the FY2001 priority list approved by the BOE at its last meeting).
• Projects approved by city council and mayor or town meeting by 12/30/2000, application procedures completed by 6/30/2001, approved by the BOE by 8/30/2001.
• Projects under desegregation plans prior to 10/1/1999 that receive local approvals by 9/15/2000.

Any other project would appear to fall under the new statute. This all will obviously have to await the formation of the School Building Advisory Board and the issuance of new SBAB regulations formulated to enact the new statute.

MCAS Funding

MCAS remediation money has been increased by $20 million, which doubles currently available funds. The purposes of the MCAS grants is to enhance academic support services for students scoring in level 1 or 2 on the MCAS exam.
Each school district in which more than 20% of the students score below level 3 on the MCAS exam shall submit an MCAS success plan to the Department of Education. The plan shall outline the district's strategies for mastering the curriculum frameworks.

Miscellaneous Provisions

Metco funding has received an approximately $3 million increase in their appropriation. Approximately $20 million is available in the Budget for kindergarten development grants to support full-day kindergarten programs. Preference will be given to grant applicants with high numbers of students scoring at levels 1 or 2 of the MCAS exam.

Full Day Kindergarten Grant Program

$28 million in grants to be administered by the new DOE Office of School Readiness to enhance the quality of existing full-day Kindergarten programs and to encourage the transition of half-day programs to full day.

Early Literacy Grant Program

$20 million for the John Silber Early Literacy program to be administered by the new DOE Office of School Readiness. These grants are to target literacy in grades K-5.

Foundation Reserve Program

The funding for the foundation reserve or "pothole" program has been reduced from prior years to $2 million.

Changes to Public Procurement and Construction Laws

Chapter 30B has been amended to increase the threshold for requiring quotes from between $1,000 and $10,000 to between $5,000 and $25,000. In addition the requirement for competitive bidding was moved from $10,000 to $25,000. Contract negotiation extensions are now capped at 45 days.

The allowable increase over contract price has extended from 10 percent to 25 percent. There are also a number of changes to Chapter 149, the public construction statute, which may affect school building projects.

Education Technology Program

$55 million for Educational Technology in the Commonwealth over the next five years with $35 million in grants to school districts to help meet the DOE distict technology standards.

Charter Schools

As often happens at this time of year, the conference committee on the Charter Schools bills reported its compromise bill out late Saturday afternoon. Both the House and Senate passed the bill and sent it to the Governor after dealing with the new Fenway Park legislation.

The bill does the following:

• Increases the cap on Charter Schools to 120 (72 Commonwealth charters and 48 Horace Mann charters). The board can issue up to seven of each type each year. If seven are not issued in a given year, they can roll over into the next year. The board may issue up to four Commonwealth charters (in addition to the seven) each year specifically for alternative education programs for disruptive students.

• Charter school tuition is capped at nine percent of net school spending. If the tuition reaches nine percent, the state may provide tuition directly for siblings of attending students. Total attendance is capped at four percent of public school attendance statewide.

• At least three of the charters granted each year must be in districts performing below the state average on MCAS. The board can only approve a regional charter school in a community with a population of less than 30,000.

• Regional charter schools shall be eligible for regional transportation reimbursements.

• Teachers in charter schools must pass the teacher test.

• Charters will not be renewed unless they can document that they have provided models for replication and best practices to the commissioner and to the local district.

• Horace Mann boards of trustees may include a school committee member.

Governor's Budget Vetoes - Education

Governor Cellucci has vetoed the following education related items in the FY2001 budget:

• Magnet Educational Grant program ($4.8 million) - These funds are used in the implementation of innovative programs to support desegregation plans.

• Equal Education Improvement Fund grants ($8.5 million) - These funds are used for diversity training for staff, parental involvement, programs that support integration, and at risk students.

• Full Day Kindergarten grants - cut from $28 million to $23 million.

• John Silber Early Literacy grants - cut from $20.2 million to $10.2 million.

• Early Intervention Tutorial Literacy program (entire $3 million budget vetoed).

• Adult Basic Education grants - cut from $34.1 million to $30.1 million.

• School District Audit program ($3 million) - This is the audit program conducted by the DOE. Along with his veto message the Governor filed a supplementation budget bill for $3M with language that creates an audit program within DOE but controlled by a five member board appointed by the Governor with a separate staff.

• Special Education pooled risk program - cut from $5.6 million to $1.3 million. The pooled risk program is based on a per dollar matching contribution between school districts and the state. This represents the FY2001 anticipated state share.

• Special Education loan pool program - cut from $4 million to 1 million. The funds in this program would be available for school districts to borrow at zero interest for extraordinary special education costs.

• Alternative Education Grants - cut from $1 million to $500, 000. This program is for the development of alternative programs for disruptive students.
T
he Governor also vetoed outside sections covering Special Education reporting requirements; a new foundation budget review commission; the creation of curriculum adoption plans (special education related); Independent Evaluation language( special education related); Parent Advisory Council requirement - both state and local (special education related); required participation in a collaborative (special education related); out of state placement requirements (special education related); the requirement to keep older special education regulations in place; certification standards for nurses; a study of the teacher test; a charter school spending study; an education collaborative study; and some sections of the changes to the public construction law.

Legislative response to governor vetoes

As the legislature closed the formal session for the year at midnight on July 31, they had acted to override many of the governor's vetoes of items in the FY2001 budget, including the following:

• Full Day Kindergarten grants - restored to the full $28 million.

• John Silber Early Literacy grants - restored to the full $20.2 million.

• Early Intervention Tutorial Literacy program - restored to the full $3 million.

• Special Education pooled risk program - restored to the full $5.6 million.

• Special Education loan pool program - restored to the full $4 million.

The legislature also restored all of the outside sections containing language regarding special education changes.