Throughout the region, school and municipal leaders, as well as students themselves, have been emphasizing that the Chapter 70 formula, which calculates how much state aid will be allocated to each municipality and regional school district for education, does not work for rural communities and those with shrinking enrollments.
An aspect of the governor’s budget includes a glimmer of hope that this will change.
In the fiscal year 2027 budget signed by Gov. Maura Healey on July 16, 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, with 29 members and to make recommendations by October 2028, does not guarantee changes to the Chapter 70 formula, it’s something that has been requested. In March, Northampton High School students, accompanied by Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, traveled to the State House for a day of “guerrilla advocacy” with Gateway Regional High School students.
Those students cited statistics showing Northampton’s Chapter 70 state aid accounts for 16% of net school spending for the city’s public schools, less than half the 33% of net school spending prior to the 1993 Education Reform Act.
Similar sentiments were expressed at a regional forum held in Greenfield last November, where elected officials discussed the local contribution components of the school finance formula, and in March 2025, when the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing at the University of Massachusetts.
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.”
The point has also been made by Sen. Jake Oliveira, D-Ludlow, who said at a Ways and Means hearing in March that suburban and rural districts are “impacted harder” under the current Chapter 70 formula, whereas cities like Springfield and Chicopee are getting significantly bigger increases in state aid.
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.
But the boost varies depending on the community and regional district.
Northampton will see its Chapter 70 aid increase to $9.02 million, a nearly $400,000, or 4.6% rise, while Amherst’s Chapter 70 aid is going up to $6.7 million, a $165,280, or 2.5%, increase. Easthampton is seeing a $245,280 Chapter 70 aid increase, representing a 2.7% rise to $9.3 million, while Belchertown is up to $15.05 million, a $317,120, or 2.1%, and South Hadley’s increase is $280,160, or 2.5%, to $11.4 million.
For regional schools, Amherst-Pelham is getting $10.28 million, a $203,840, or 2%, increase, Gateway is getting $6.46 million, a $120,960, or 1.9%, increase, and Hampshire Regional is getting $3.6 million, a $92,640, or 2.6%, increase.
School leaders say they are pleased that the review will begin.
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 dropping 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.”
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 Modestow 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 Select Board 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.
