Education funding... 2 billion dollars short every year
While the party loyalists pat themselves on their backs for doing the people's business, they failed to reach an agreement on Ed funding. For a State that prides itself on being the education State, Beacon Hill fails to address the issue that has been talked about for over 18 years. While the ruling party in both houses have the control and have had another 19 months to come up with a plan that addresses a major education shortfall that has hurt Framingham and other Towns seems like forever, nothing changed. The Foundation Budget review Commission has said the original budget formula has underestimated education costs up to 2 Billion dollars a year. This goes back to when Debbie Blumer was at the State House. And while Karen Spilka has done her best for Framingham over the years, it still remains a mystery why they can't fix it. Imagine how better off our kids would be if we fully funded education here in Framingham and across the State.
So when the candidates for State Rep come knocking on your door, ask them what they will do to fix one of this States biggest problems.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 9:22 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
I think there are bigger issues than the education budget Jim. What about corrupt police officers, sexual misconduct by legislators, unfair tolls, kids being separated from their parents, an insane president, and a tradition of ignoring the will of the voter as most cities/town are doing related to recreational pot? What about homeless veterans, the opioid epidemic, and people going hungry? Yeah, school budgets are important and do impact the cost of property taxes, but I think there are far more important issues we need to ask our state rep about. Hope that you as the Voter Services chair of the LWV ask the tough questions at your event on 8/20
Your point is well stated and I agree. BUT... all the years I sat in Town Meeting, the School budget was the biggest problem. Unfunded mandates and an ever increasing school population drove the budget higher each year. It's education that helps stop poverty, crime and homelessness. And since we are going to elect a new Rep, it would be important to know how they feel about the Ed formula that couldn't get past the conference committee.
We'll have some great questions for the candidates and hopefully, some great questions from the audience.
I think you are right about education being #1. Increased funding will impact the pocket of every single homeowner in Framingham. What else would do that? But that does not mean all those other things Anonymous mentioned are not important too. And add climate change, race relations, and the fact that 99% of the money in this country belongs to 1% of the people, and you have the makings of an ugly future. If you want to talk about education, you need to talk about the cost of college. Kids graduate with hundreds of thousand in debt they are saddled with for 20 years. They will be in there 40s before they can afford to buy a house. So who are us babyboomers going to sell our homes to? There aren't going to be anyone who can get a loan to buy them. Education expenses, not just the public schools in Framingham, but education as a whole has to be addressed or we are all going to be suffereing
Excellent points about school dept. Someday we may see what Canada does with the college kids, but not now for sure. We can't depend on change until more parents and college kids with huge debt are adversely effected in my opinion.
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