Title
Resolved: That is the sense of the Malden City Council that it endorses SD 1912, An Act to Ensure Adequate and Equitable Funding for Public Education, sponsored by Senator Jason Lewis.
Body
It is the sense of the Malden City Council that it endorses SD 1912, An Act to Ensure Adequate and Equitable Funding for Public Education, sponsored by Senator Jason Lewis, as a way to address the long-term funding challenges the city faces in funding its local share of the Chapter 70 schools formula. This bill creates a commission to examine and make recommendations on key issues with Chapter 70, and explicitly includes:
? the extent to which the wealth and income measures in the formula accurately determine a municipality's ability to contribute to its foundation budget costs and whether these measures should be changed;
? the impact of section 21C of chapter 59 of the General Laws on municipalities and their ability to make their required local contributions (so-called Proposition 2 1/2); and
? the impact of the fixed 59 percent local share of the statewide foundation budget on the calculation of combined effort yield for each municipality and whether the local share should be changed.
Resolving these concerns are essential for ensuring that the funding will be available to support the needs of all Malden students, as defined in the Student Opportunity Act. This must also ensure the City of Malden is able to provide all other critical public services essential for student and family wellbeing, including public health, libraries, parks and recreation, language access, and public safety. We encourage appointments to commission to include representation from Gateway Cities and others who have similar local financing challenges to Malden.
The Malden City Council strongly supports passage of this bill, urges all stakeholders in our community and across the state who seek to ensure our schools are adequately funded to contact their state legislators to express th...
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