2025-03-24 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Ways and Means

Everybody's looking at me. That's a me question.
SPEAKER18 - Thank you.
TUTWILER - So, we are only a couple of years into access to this incredible resource, the fair share dollars, and have leveraged them to do some really incredible things. Right? The universal, breakfast universally free breakfast and lunch, is largely funded or exclusively funded by tuition and fee free, community colleges is is funded, by. Our shifts in creating greater affordability to our 4-year schools are largely funded through that. And my understanding is that in the early going, the idea around those dollars is to leverage it10399 to seed innovation and think about, you know, what are some programs that we want to start? What are some initiatives that we want to, you know, support or get off the ground and then think substantively about ways to bring those dollars back into the operating budget? And so a proposal to leverage those dollars for, chapter10427 70, I don't foresee10429 just based on the way that they've been leveraged thus far. But that is more a secretary Gorkowitz question than it is10438 a Yeah. Secretary, tell me.
MARSI - No. That's good. I mean, thank you for that. The reason I bring that up10444 is, you know, somebody 1 of my colleagues touched on it earlier about, you know the towns the municipalities ability to pay and, you know, what debt did last year for a couple of my towns was prevent, proposition 2 and a half overrides, which are running rampant all over the state. So, yeah, I see the hands. As a 12-year selectman in Dudley, you know, I dealt with this every year. So anything that we can do as a team to push that would be great. Thank you.
SPEAKER24 - Thank you.
SPEAKER18 - Thank you all.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Representative representative Kearney.
REP KEARNEY - Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you all for being here today. I appreciate all the testimony and all the questions that you've answered. I know we've asked a lot of questions about it today, and it's been touched upon by many legislators. But, obviously, 1 of those common themes10496 is the cost of special education tuition price increases. And so my question is, recently, the operational services division authorized a more than 10% increase to a private special education service provider on the South Shore. I represent Marshfield, Situet, and Norwell. And that provider services my towns, and that authorization allowed their tuition to go up from $329,000 to $365,000 per student. Meanwhile, the CEO of that private special education service provider makes a salary of $300,000 a year. The CFO makes a salary of $220,000. What is the criteria used by DESE and OSD10547 to authorize these significant tuition increases that are straining municipal budgets, and how does DESE and OSD assure that the public funds that are10557 going to these special education service providers are going to the educational needs of these students and not to excessive administrative salaries?
JOHNSON - Glad to take that question. As the former state director of special education, I think, if you don't mind, I'll start. But glad to, glad to fill in some pieces here. So schools the approved special education schools can10580 apply for what we call a reconstruction of their tuition rates after they have successfully completed 1 of our reviews. So, it is on a cycle that they can apply. It isn't sort of, you know, on a year-to-year basis, but it's as a result of our monitoring system, which has a midyear check-in point after 3 years and a full review after 6 years. So with, you know, the criteria being in place and no outstanding compliance issues to review, the schools can apply. They have to notify10608 us by October 1, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and10612 the Operational Services Division, so that the school districts are aware that there is a potential reconstruction of tuition coming. The process then requires the approved special education school to show us what those services are that will change for the students who are enrolled in those schools and what the demand for those services is.
So we review that request for a change in services that can maybe be a need for more speech therapy for students, maybe occupational therapy. But what we don't approve are things that are, you know, maybe the want to haves, such as a change10648 to, you know, maybe adding a pool, to a facility would be the type of thing that would not meet our criteria for, you know, the role that we play in approving a reconstruction proposal. The process proceeds to where there is then, what's called a purchasers meeting. So, the approved special education schools invite the sending districts to a meeting, to be able to share publicly what are those change in services that they're proposing, and what is the demand for them. Ultimately, what we need to have happen is that those tuition rates are changing because the10685 schools are able to offer something that the districts want from them. And the districts have a chance to weigh in and confirm whether or not they're seeing that in10693 the changes in those tuition rates.
We are working more right10697 now with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and the Association of Approved Special Education Schools to partner around upcoming meetings that will likely occur later this spring because there are about 13 requests for reconstruction that are in process right now. And it's through those meetings that are held where the10717 department is listening to the type of feedback that we get from the districts to know whether or not what is being proposed there is a demand for and can meet our approval. We, as a department, approve the services. OSD sets the rate. So once we're done reviewing which services are requested and those purchasers meetings occur, we send the proposal on to the operational services division for them to set the rate, which then, as you're mentioning, goes into effect. The schools draw from a range of funding sources. So there is an amount of Massachusetts taxpayer dollars that can go for any type of salary from within the schools, and the schools often have students coming from out of state, or who are privately enrolled. And so the salary of the CEO of the schools is composed of often more than 1 source of revenue. And so when you quote the salary, I'm not here to either defend or criticize those salaries. Just to factually explain that they do, they are derived10780 from a variety of funding sources, not solely from the rates that are10784 set through OSD, and those rates are clear about the services that are being provided, including the administrative costs.
KEARNEY - Just a quick comment. In speaking with the parents of the students that are typically enrolled in these schools, they feel very strongly that the students that are going there are not getting anywhere near the services they need at that price point. So, it is from the10811 cheap seats. When10813 are you hearing from multiple parents of these kids that need these services feeling as though they're not getting anywhere close to the amount of value that these school districts are paying for these students to go there, and then that is causing rapid overrides throughout the Commonwealth in these municipal budgets. So I think we should do something to figure out a more fair and equitable social contract for these private schools that are providing services that our public school districts might not be providing and make sure that any tuition increases are are notably justified.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much, representative. Next step: representative Sabadosa.
SABADOSA - Thank you so much. Thank you for bearing with us. You've been sitting here for a long time, and I wanna start actually by thanking you for something else. I was just so delighted to see the 100% non-resident vocational school transportation funding in h1. And I wanna flag it in particular because 1 of my communities, Plainfield, which is a town of 600 in Western Hampshire County, rallied hard to see that get to 100%. And what10889 it means to them to see it in this budget10891 is that they've been listened10893 to, they've been heard, and that's really significant10895 for a small rural community. I need to echo what Rep Simola said about the rural funding. It is something that I know we all need to partner and work on together. And I need to also say that when you couple that with the recent expansion of charter school seats in Hadley, which is also going to affect all of those schools, it becomes even more challenging, and it creates more and more of a rift between our municipalities and our charter schools. So my question for you today, and I ask it as a thought partner, as a group of individuals who I know care deeply about education, is what can you point to in h 1? What can I point to when I talk to my constituents that will help to ease that rift and show that we are working to support students no matter where they go to school? Because our schools and our towns sometimes feel like they're being asked to cannibalize each other in order to keep our schools open, and it just isn't fair.
TUTWILER - I appreciate that. What10953 I would point to right away is the circuit breaker increase. Right? We believe that is an increase that we believe will be felt by every district, and regardless of where you are geographically in Massachusetts, regardless of whether you are rural or urban or what have you, everyone will feel that impact, so I would point to that immediately. I've had the opportunity to speak to a few school business administrators who know this stuff inside and out, some of whom I've known for quite a long time and they'll tell me the truth on whether or not, this is gonna have impact, and with unanimity, they've said that it that it would. So I would point to that.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, representative. Representative Sullivan Almeda.
SULLIVAN-ALMEIDA - Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you. I know we've been at this for quite a bit of time. I guess my statements and questions are gonna be around special education. I've heard from my communities both the parents of special education students, but also our teachers. Right? And I wanna do a huge shout-out to our special education teachers. They are doing the job with very limited and maybe at times lack of resources. They are hitting the bare minimum, and the struggle is the competition, or I should say the tug and pull between the administration and the teacher and individual students. So my concern is that, and I know, secretary, I think you said we're here for all students. And I'm, you know, I have a child, my child, but somebody I love is very near and dear to my heart, my nephew who is a special needs student, severe dyslexia. And it kind of pinged my my, attention to the lack of resources that, parents but also educators have around, what we're seeing a post COVID era, right, where it's these students that are having very unique11078 issues but also parents that don't know their rights and don't know where to turn when coming to, argue with the school districts and feeling very much, very much at the lower end. Right?
They're fighting these school districts that have resources, money, know the law, and individual parents who might just wanna protect their children. So, I'm wondering if the administration is looking at changing the way11110 it approaches special education, especially around dyslexia. Are we gonna look at bringing in teachers with more qualifications around programs like Wilson and Orton Gillingham that are showing very much, tools and resources that will give these students an opportunity to stay in the schools with their friends and their colleagues and people they have grown, you know, to have these relationships with. What is the department doing to recruit and retain these special education teachers? We're11146 seeing11146 such a removal of special education teachers from 20-plus years going to general ed because they are getting overwhelmed and sad at the lack of resources that are going to these students. So I guess that's where11164 my my question statement is around, what where in our budget or do you need more resources around that to really address these issues that we're seeing more time and time again, especially around retaining, recruiting, and then also different, options for these parents that can't afford a 40 to $50,000 tuition to send their kids to a special education program outside of the public school system. It shouldn't be on these parents to pay that bill. It shouldn't be on the parents to fight the administration or the department to say that the school itself is failing their child. It is, you know, there's people are meeting ends meet here and it should not be on those parents.
JOHNSON - So, all very good points, and it's why we at the department are committed to continuing to address this issue in a comprehensive way. And so it really starts by making sure that we intervene early, that we identify who are struggling with reading, who might be showing signs of dyslexia, and making sure they get support as as early as possible. So11231 we have a regulation that just went into effect a couple of years ago that requires districts11235 to assess and screen students starting in kindergarten through grade 3 for signs11241 of struggling, struggling readers, and to make sure that parents are informed. Because to your point, we wanna make sure that parents know. Is my child11249 on track for reading success, or are they11251 struggling? In addition, we require that districts use what we call approved screeners because, as a former superintendent, you're often at the mercy of a lot of11260 the publishing companies that are11262 advertising to11264 you that their product meets your students' needs. We wanna make sure we sort of cut through any of the noise and really point to where are the screeners that will adequately identify students, particularly for showing signs of dyslexia at an early age, again, so that interventions can happen long before there's continued failure in our system.
Coupling with that, we've published guidance to make sure that our schools and districts are aware of how do you then as you identify a student, what are the interventions that are most successful? How do you continue to monitor the students' improvements? How do you support families? What is unique about students who are multilingual and also dyslexic? And so that support has been really important to explain what is the approach that we hope schools need schools and districts to take. We've coupled that with professional learning for our educators to say that we know that an individual teacher can make a difference, but, ultimately, it's a team approach that will matter the most. So we have offered for many years now a comprehensive dyslexia training program for our educators in the state to come together as a team from a school and learn together about the, very in influential and positive approaches that can be taken, to support students with dyslexia, and then to really think about what is the action plan for them to take back to their school so the learning doesn't end as the, PD session wraps up. In addition, what's also really important is the literacy launch initiative because we know that strong literacy support will affect all students.
So I appreciate that you said all students, and we know that we need to be looking at how students experience their education comprehensively. So I agree that the specialized reading, supports like those that you mentioned are important, and we need to make sure that the, the materials that are in front of students on a regular basis are adequate at meeting their needs so that they don't, you know, so that what they're getting through maybe additional resources are complemented and improved by what's happening in the general education classroom. And then, finally, I would actually turn to the new IEP. When you talk about that contentiousness that can exist, and as a parent of a child with a disability myself, you know, I've been on the other side of the table, and I realized that our educators are working so hard. They are talking about what is put in front of them in terms of the annual review process that all families and educators engage in together. And I felt a strong commitment to giving our teachers something better than what they had previously worked with.
So we did develop a new IEP that strongly centers the voice of students and families, the vision for what they want, the education they education, and the experience to be and to make sure that the IEP really drives the change that the parents and the students themselves wanna see in their lives. And so this is, you know, newly required this year, so it's early still. We are providing a lot of support to make sure that parents know how to fully access the new IEP. So I'm very pleased about our partnership with the Federation for Children with Special Needs, where we fund many of their initiatives to be able to help families understand how to use the new IEP. I've heard very positive feedback about those training sessions because they're action-oriented. Parents don't just sit and get. They come to a meeting and learn11460 how they will work11462 with the new IEP to engage effectively and what they should expect their the educators and their community, and how that engagement will look in the IEP process. We've also created other11472 supplementary materials to support families. And so I'm hoping that as these resources come together, they will be11478 effective, all the way from assessment, intervention, and family engagement coming together to really support some of our most vulnerable learners in the state.
SULLIVAN-ALMEIDA - Madam Chair, I can just do a quick follow-up. On the so I guess around the IEPs and I'm I'm happy to hear that we're kind of improving around that, but I've heard from several special need parents where, you know, luckily a parent is able to be hands on. Right? But that's not always the case. You have 2 working parents, sometimes working 2, 3 jobs to meet at meet ends meet. And it sounds like, I guess, the standard is more on the parent to address with the school failures around the IEP. Is there gonna be more oversight from the department as a whole on these school districts to hold them accountable when they're failing these students on on addressing their IEPs or making notifications when IEP waivers are submitted to the department to these students parents that, may not be so involved or or are able to be as involved as they would like to be because of other commitments. Is that gonna also be addressed in this new improvement as well?
JOHNSON - Yeah. Thank you for that. And really, when I was talking about the professional learning that we're offering for families, it's really just to empower and support their involvement in the IP meetings. We are also providing the same, you know, training as well as accountability for our districts as it comes to all facets of special education, including the development of IEPs and really the implementation of them. Right? To make sure that students are getting the services that they need. This year, in February, we updated our monitoring procedures for districts. Because you're asking about how does our department hold districts accountable just like we're held accountable, by the Department of Education well, by by the I won't go there. We had been held accountable. I won't go there. But I do think it's important that I hold myself to, like, a high bar.
That, like, it's not just who we're who that we're watching the districts. It's that I also think it's important that the state is held accountable and that it, you know, it's a through line. Anyway, we changed our monitoring system so it's more responsive to what we're seeing in districts in the near term as opposed to, you know, getting information and then not going on-site for many months. We've sort of shortened the timelines, increased the data that we're using in order to understand what are the outcomes that students are achieving in the schools. And then finally, doing more to listen to families and to hear their perspectives on11631 the services districts are providing. Both the positive. Right? This isn't all negative.11635 There are lots of good things that are going on, and what our family is saying can be further11639 improved. So really elevating family voice in the monitoring process and then getting feedback to our districts even more rapidly so we can see those improvements occur even sooner than they had in the past.11649
COMERFORD - Thank you very much. And I'll just take a moment to say that11653 I think our districts want to be held accountable for special education work. Every educator I know works11661 every single day to bring absolute dedication to a great diversity of students. I think that it would be worth the state's while, and perhaps we'll get that someday when we look at the Chapter 70 formula, to not only fund special education in the classroom based on an assumed percentage. Every single district I represent, every single 1 commissioner. Has a special education threshold that is above the assumed state percentage. In fact, the state average is above the assumed state threshold. I just think we have to say that out loud. Representative McKenna.
REP MCKENNA - Thank you very much, and we've reached the part of the program where we're getting a little bit overlapping in our questions, but fortunately, my question is on special education, so it's on theme. I think it's different enough. I wanna11727 look at it a little more broadly and at the impact it has on the budgets of our local municipalities because this is, after all, a budget hearing. And looking at this line item, it's an absolute municipal budget breaker, and it can happen very quickly. For example, in the town of Douglas, Several Years ago, they had a family move into the district with 2 kids that attended the Perkins School for the Blind. Fantastic program. That was a quarter million dollar budget hit that the school took, unexpected mid-year non-discretionary, you gotta pay it. Even with full circuit breaker reimbursement, that budget's crippled. That budget is hurt. And what we're telling to the rest of the families in the school is we're now gonna have to impose costs or fees on what I view as a basic part of a public school education, recreation, sports, extracurriculars.
We now need to pay for those just to make ends meet for the special education budget that has gone completely out of control. And I'm not arguing that the children don't deserve everything that they're getting. These programs are fantastic. They need to be there, but it's gotta be looked at11799 a different way that decouples it from11801 chapter 70 and it no longer11803 cripples a municipal budget11805 when 1 student requires $700,000. In 1 of my towns, there's a student that11811 has a 1 on 1, 24/7 aid, $700,000. How does that equate to education funding at that point? It needs to be considered as health care or something different that will no longer break the backs of the municipality trying to make ends meet. Even, as I said, even with a full reimbursement from the circuit breaker, that's a trailing reimbursement. That doesn't do anything to help them this year when they're trying to make their budget meet. Has there been anything to any consideration? Certainly, this may be a question that comes back to us as the legislature. How do we decouple that cost from the general education formula?
JOHNSON - I think it's important, as the secretary has pointed out, the increases,11856 first of all, in, Circuit Breaker to make sure the districts have access to the funding that,11862 you know, we are we want them to have, which is that 75% reimbursement. And so the full funding of circuit breaker, I think, is vitally important as a necessary step. What you're raising, I think, is important to delve into further because the last thing that I want is for, you know, families of students with disabilities to feel like the education system is either about them or not about them. Right? We are all 1 system, and we need to educate all of our children well. And I know that you're saying that, you know, at the end of the day, we just need to make sure that those families, the ones that you've mentioned, you know, are are able to get what they need, and it's not a but. Right? We need to not have a but between students who have higher costs and students in our general education programs. So we need to be an ant that, you know, everyone is getting what they need.
And so I know that there'd be, you know, I'm sure a willingness to continue to engage with the legislature around this issue. And I think it would be important to look at multiple facets of this, not only how the funding works and, to your point, should it be decoupled or not, but also other rules that surround when tuitions are paid. So, for example, when a student moves, in many cases, what is known far and wide as the move-in law, right applies to many students. But is it11933 doing is it having the right triggers and the right results? That would be worth looking at as well. And then, you know, who's covered by the move-in law because proof of special education schools are, but some other types of services aren't. And so that could be worthy of further consideration. And then finally, I think it's just important, to continue to come back to, you know, you know, what are the ways that this is just looked at comprehensively. So I think these are all good pushes, and I know that there'd be engagement, willingness to continue to11961 engage on these important issues.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, representative. Representative Scarsdale.
SCARSDALE - Oh, good afternoon, all. I think I might be last but not least. And Commissioner, Secretary Tutwiler, and commissioners, I wanna thank you for coming out to UMass Amherst on my birthday. Hi. It is clear there are a lot of issues, and a lot of passion and energy and angst around this multifaceted thing of school funding. I represent the First Middlesex District. We're not in the East. We're not in the West. We're a slap in the middle of the Commonwealth on the northern border. I'm also a former educator. I taught English language arts to middle schoolers, and I know that there is nothing more transformative than education. And I know this because as a high school dropout, my own life was transformed when I was able to go back to college later in life, get my degree from UMass Lowell in 02/2007. So my district12031 is comprised of 6 towns, 6 small towns. 4 are around 10,000 each, and 2 are 3,000 each, which honestly seems a little large12043 next to my colleague's playing field of only 600. But 2 of the, there are 2 regional schools, North Middlesex and Groton Dunstable, and 1 comprehensive, which is Lunenburg. All of them face overrides of between 1 and $3,000,000, and each 1 of the school districts is a hold harmless or minimum aid district.
And so the overrides are devastating on their own, as you can imagine, but my school districts are also agonizing over cutting 35 or more teachers, which would result in class sizes of 35 to 40 kids, which is absolutely antithetical to good education pedagogy. And this kind of cuts in small towns or really any towns are gutting to my district. 1 of my districts is working to close the only school in the smallest town, Ashby. I know you're familiar with that, and it is really devastating to the community. And just the fact that first graders will be on a bus for 45 minutes 1 way to go into another town is very unsettling, to say the least, to parents. So earlier, 1 of my colleagues touched on the minimum aid hold harmless designation. And when talking with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees early on in 2023 and using Groton Dunstable as just an example to work from, Mask said that they did not think Groton Dunstable would ever be able to dig out of the hole that Hold harmless had put them in. And that is a direct quote. Never get out of the hole. And all of my all of my districts, all 3 have cavernous holes. Chair Comerford said that addressing the statewide school funding is a complex issue.
You have to hold harmless, you have the inflation factor, you have multiple formulas, you have the student opportunity act, and they're all intertwined with each other. Right? You can't pull on 1 thread without it affecting another thread. So it's very complicated. We also have the loss of ESSER funds. We have ever-increasing transportation costs. We have no bid bus contract, circuit breaker, or antiquated regional school agreements. So, it is complex, and a solution won't be easy. But for the sake of the 232 school districts in the Commonwealth, we absolutely have to work on this both from a funding perspective and with the longer term through a new foundation review commission. So I appreciate all of the engagement and the leadership by you, Secretary Tutwiler, and the commissioners and mask, parents and teachers and school committees and select boards who've come together across the Commonwealth to coalesce around this issue. But for my own edification, and I'm sorry,12244 I think I missed this when you were talking earlier with Senator Commerford. Secretary, would you please reiterate your commitment to work with the legislature on the review commission? And thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
TUTWILER - Indeed. And want to first lift up how familiar I am with at least 1 of the regional districts that you highlighted in your comments. The question was asked earlier if I would, or if the administration would, lead the way in terms of bringing the House and Senate together to review chapter 70, from, sort of a high level. My comment was that we are more than willing to be close partners in that work and follow the lead of the legislature.
SPEAKER8 - Thank you, sir.

COMERFORD - Thank you, representative. To our esteemed panel, I think we've set a new record for your testimony. I've consulted with co-chair Duffy, and we are not going to go for a second round of questions, mindful of the need. I saw Commissioner Kershaw break out the coffee. So we are very, very grateful for your time and for your service and for your excellent answers to very difficult questions and for your willingness to actually join us in understanding that there are many unanswered questions and many significant, lasting concerns. And we'll be with you on that journey, as you will be with us. And with that, we are very, very grateful and would like to release the panel, and we hope that you'll get number 1 in the nation food on your way out in Room 165, you and your staff. And please let us thank your staff too, all behind you, and we know they do hard lifting for the legislature and for the Commonwealth. Thank you very much. Next up, friends, we have the second panel of the day, and this actually is early education and care. Please welcome Bill Eddy, who is the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Early Education and Care, and Claire Higgins, executive director of Community Action Pioneer Valley.
SPEAKER3 - You gotta be talking. I'm sorry, Lord. But you're gonna be kidding me.
SPEAKER21 - I'm just gonna sit down. Nice to see you. You're looking to get a little tent. Where is it now?
Okay.
SPEAKER30 - There you go.
COMERFORD - Thank you for your patience. We are very happy to have your testimony, and I'll just say for the record that in 2 hearings previously that I chaired, we had early education go last. And Claire Higgins said to me, what are you doing? Why do young people go last? Why aren't young people first in chronology? And so there you have it, Claire. So no, no. The applause is for you. So thank you so much, and thank you for being mindful of the time limits in your testimony. You can see that we are going on today. Thank you. And please decide who should go first.
CLAIRE HIGGINS - COMMUNITY ACTION PIONEER VALLEY - I'm just gonna introduce myself. I'm Claire Higgins. I'm the executive director of Community Action Pioneer Valley, and we run early education and head start programs up and down the valley. And my colleague is gonna introduce himself and go first.
WILLIAM EDDY - MADCA - There you go. Thank you. Chairman Covingford, Chairwoman Duffy, and members of the committee, my name is William Eddy. I'm the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Early Education and Care. Our association of the largest grouping of childcare providers in the Northeast and represents early education programs in the community from North Adams to Boston to Martha's Vineyard. Our members provide care for children aged 6 weeks, and they leave our programs in grade 6 in our after-school programs. On their behalf today, our members provide the vast majority of care that's purchased by the Department of Religious Education Care. On their behalf, I'm here today and wanna thank you for the invitation and thank you for your community's continued commitment to early education and care in this Commonwealth. 3 years ago, you had a legislative commission come out and put together the most comprehensive roadmap of how to invest in early education that any state has ever seen.
That roadmap came out and said to you that there was a big need for purchasing and for investing in the early education sector. You have done so over the last 3 budgets, whether it be in rates of reimbursement to pay our staff, whether it be to be the only state in the country to keep c 3 grants going across the state, and you have tried to invest in putting more children into care. We have been deeply appreciative of all that you have done over the last 3 years. Progress has been made. We believe that we look for you to continue to build on that progress in this year's budget. As you look at the governor's budget and move forward in your own process, we ask that you12594 continue to prioritize the statement that12598 was made in that commission report that public dollars should prioritize12602 low-income and at-risk children first as we look to invest in early education.
And with that in mind, we ask as you look at f y '26 that you prioritize access to care for children who meet the economic eligibility for early education and care and prioritize our at-risk children in both DCF and DTA. We're very aware that the governor's increase in access is 100,000,000 above the FY 25 figure. We're also aware that, as the commissioner outlined, and the commissioner has done a tremendous job over at DEC, as the commissioner outlined12640 that number reflects a growth, a surge in care of DTA and DCF and would not actually invest in bringing children off the wait list of low-income parents. So for us, we don't know whether the governor's projection is spot on or not. We don't know whether it's 65,000 children is the right number. Early on, they were saying 68,000 on average might be the right number. But what we do know is that we can allow for children of low-income working families to be squeezed out of the childcare system. No 1 doubts that we should prioritize entitlement children coming out of DTA or DCF for 51 cases. But we must find a way to serve children of low-income working families that are languishing on our wait list. 30,000 children should be unacceptable. And so we ask regardless of what number you settle on with the a and f and the governor that you look to prescribe at least $32,000,000 to try and take at least 2,000 children off the wait list of low-income working parents. We believe that access is a statewide issue. Whether you are a low-income child in a non gateway city like Greenfield or whether you are a low income child in a gateway community.
There's a reason that it's a statewide waitlist. We believe that every child on that waitlist, whether they be looking for infant care or in the largest grouping of children on the waitlist looking for after-school care, that those children should be prioritized the same as preschoolers. So we ask that you look to invest in access. We ask additionally that you look to continue the progress you've made on rates of reimbursement to help pay our staff. Finally, we ask you to continue investing in the C3 grants at level funding this year, and we ask you to build upon the effort you did last year. Last year, you took the step to ensure a C3 grant while stabilizing all programs, prioritizing low-income children and the programs and educators serving them. We ask you to maintain those tiers that you created last year. They made a tremendous difference for programs that serve low-income and at-risk children. As always, I thank you for all that you do for our field. I thank you for all that you do for our hardworking staff and for our programs across the state, and we're very appreciative of all the commitment12788 you've continued to demonstrate to our field. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. Claire.
CLAIRE HIGGINS - So we started with the ask, and now I'm gonna tell you the some of the whys and the wherefores about12798 why we have those numbers. And I wanna start with the fact that I wanna have a moment of gratitude to the governor for putting together her comprehensive look at the role of early education and care in the Commonwealth. Building on the really important work that the legislative, special legislative committee that those steps. And I'm reminded, you know, Katie Dukakis was in the news and we're thinking of Mike Dukakis and he was such an important governor. And many of you probably don't know that he, in 1984, pulled together something called the day care the governor's day care partnership project. And that was, and in that year, he made a commitment to trying to do work statewide to grow the system and12849 to make it so that people12851 could work in the system. I was a teacher at that time, an early educator. My pay almost doubled. I remember that because it12858 went from $3.93 an hour to $5.35 an hour. So that's where we were in 1984. Right? So that commitment, as soon as the administration changed, kind of12870 went away.
And it's taken this12872 long to have a commissioner and a governor who are committed to rebuilding that kind of early education system that we need to have in this Commonwealth. I also wanna remind you that we a school systems with declining enrollment because parents with young children can't afford to stay in the state. We have to make it possible for people to stay here. And that's a huge issue. And a big part of that issue is the need for 2 incomes and or the need for childcare for a single family with a single income. And so then that comes down to the wage issue is huge for our staff, and we are still seeing turnover even with the rate increases that we've seen. Now we have to continue progress on rate increases if we wanna keep teachers in the classroom. Nobody doubts the need for teachers in the classroom at the elementary and secondary levels. We understand that they need to be qualified, and they need to know their stuff.
Turnover in an infant, toddler, or preschool room is devastating to children because they learn based on the trust that they have with the grown-ups in that classroom. Right? And they learn through all the nonverbal stuff that happens in that classroom. You don't learn unless first you trust the person who teaches you. And in early education centers across our state and across the country, the turnover is so high that that's actively traumatizing to children. So, you heard from the previous panel about trauma. Turnover is part of that trauma problem. If you're a kid who was in foster care, if you're a kid who's been in a homeless shelter, if you're a kid who has experienced 3,12979 4, or 5 different housing situations, then having 3, 4, or 5 different teachers is traumatizing. So we have an obligation to try to stabilize that system for those12990 low-income children. You know, and so I've said this, last time I testified, so I'll just keep repeating it. The most brain development happens in the first 5 years of life. And13005 the smallest paychecks go to the people13007 who are with those children in the first 5 years of life. The taller the kid, the bigger the check. And the other true thing is that the taller the kid, the more time you don't have to be with them. Babies you're with for the entire day.
Toddlers, you're with the entire day. If you're a13026 professor, maybe you get to have office hours. Maybe you get a prep period13030 if you're a teacher in a public school. Not true for our early educators by and13034 large. We need to recognize this profession for what it is and recognize the need for those teachers to have the kind of support as teachers. And I'm gonna give the commissioner a lot of credit. She's really been working on doing those doing those kinds of things that education piece, etcetera. But it takes money. It takes money to for us to build in a planning period for people. It takes money for us to have a floating teacher so that they can go in when somebody needs to do a parent-teacher conference. All that stuff takes money for us. So, you know, we're worried. I'm worried about the incoming eligible waiting list as well. I think that's a really important piece for us. We also run head start, so our classrooms are combined.
So it looks a little different for us, but it's a really important piece of the scenario. And then I just wanna note the fact that educators come to this work with a lot of different pathways. I just mentioned that the commissioner has talked a little bit about that. And13094 I wanna thank representative Scarsdale for talking about how the different pathways lead us to where we end up. I was a college dropout when I started working in an early education classroom. I didn't get my college degree for many years after that. But, and we have a lot of staff that are that start that way and end13114 up in fact, we just lost 1 who went from being a parent in the classroom to a teacher in the classroom to having a master's degree, and she stayed in the classroom. What a gift to those kids over many, many years. So I wanna leave a lot of time for questions because I'm sure you have many. You had so many before that I'm, you know, assuming I'm assuming you're as curious about early education in here.
COMERFORD - We are really curious about early education, and thank you, Bill and Claire. I feel like we go to school with you when you talk with us. And, Claire, I just need to say for the committee, Claire, you have led us in Western Massachusetts in every way anyone can imagine, including understanding the value of investing in early education and care. You've been a teacher of everybody I know, Claire, in government, and we are13168 so very grateful. And we share13170 your appreciation for the commissioner and her leadership. And with that, we'll13174 open up for questions. I think we can do this a little less formally than we did before, but I'll we'll look for signals, and we'll try to do oh. I've got
SPEAKER2 - I've got a cap. Oh.
SPEAKER1 - 0, my goodness. Alright. So Rev Duffy is already on this. Yeah. Please.
SPEAKER2 - And I'm also I'm I'm gonna start.
SPEAKER3 - Okay. Good. Good. Good.
SPEAKER1 - No.
DUFFY - I just wanna thank you both for lifting up these important issues and Claire for lifting up the workforce. I know, Bill, that you care and know a lot about that as well. But I just want to know how you think we're doing on the pipeline for getting more staff work.
CLAIRE HIGGINS - That's a really good and interesting question. I think we're get there's 2 problems. 1 is the pipeline, which I think there's stuff happening there that I think is better. You know, the community colleges have been doing a really good job of pulling people in. Actually, the free community college, and the that's been all been helpful. I'll say that. But there are 2 problems. There's the pipeline, and then there's retention. So we have people come into us from that pipeline and maybe even get a bachelor's degree, and then they go work in a public school because the salaries are so much better. And the other will also tell us they really like working for us, but they can't afford to work for us. I won't name the school district. But, you know, they like working for us. They like working, and you've heard that across the state. Right, Bill?
EDDY - Yes. There's also a program representative that I think deserves to be mentioned. About 2 years ago, the legislature created the program called the Workforce Personal Childcare Program. It reached a high of, I think, of $15,000,000, then it got 9 seed 1 year and during13281 a tough time, and it's been slowly going13283 down. That program offers an opportunity for us to reach into a new workforce and to retain a workforce. It essentially allows educators who are working in the system to seek to get their childcare paid for while they're they're they're maintaining the system. We've long maintained that if we could build that program up and place some emphasis on the subsidy system that educators who are working with our our most of need children, similar to what UMass does with doctors and other professions do, that could be a profession. I mean, it's not a secret that 98% of our workforce are women. You'd be shocked at how few young mothers are working in our system. That if we could somehow we'll never compete with public schools for pay, but if we could offer childcare services for their children, it would be such a huge incentive to try and bring women of this, you know, child bearing years into our to our workforce. And it would help us retain those workers. And so it's an important program. It's kind of had difficulty finding a home inside the state budget. It's a program worth looking at and investing in and trying to think about how we use that tool.
CLAIRE HIGGINS - And if you're a pay if you're a teacher in a public school and your kid goes to public school, you have free tuition. Just,13367 you know, but our teachers have to pay for that if they choose to do that. And I'll13373 tell you that the track record is for those teachers that we've held on for 10, 15 years, often they started as a subsidized parent when our pay was lower. And so they could actually get a subsidy. Right?
DUFFY - Thank you for that great good for thought. Thank you.13389 Thank you so much. Senator Kennedy.
KENNEDY - Thank you so much. It's good to see you13395 both here, and it's really great to have perspective from the field. So I really appreciate that, Madam Chair, having this product of the conversation today. And a couple leading questions. I think we heard a lot from commissioner Kershaw about the investments that are being made and certainly the challenges we see with the wait list. But I'm curious from a perspective from the field: What does it look like now in terms of darkened or dimmed classrooms that we're not able to actually utilize the slots? I know for the city of Worcester, at any given time, there are 12 classrooms that are either closed completely or dimmed because we can't hire teachers or retain teachers to your point. I'm curious as to what that looks like in your region or certainly from a statewide perspective. And then I'll add in a quick second question to that. We made great strides through the legislature and partnered with the administration to implement the common start legislation13448 into the budget. And I'm curious about your perspective on those pieces because we know while the policy is there, we13456 didn't quite make it in terms of fully funding the policies. And so I'm curious as to where you see we could make great better advancement if we had. Certainly, we'd love to fill it all. But from your educators' perspective, your providers' perspective, where are the targeted places that would really help?
EDDY - So thank you. And before I even go there, I wanna thank you, Senator Kelly. As13477 a fellow Whistlerite, for your long-term commitment to early education, both in the field and now in the legislature. We're very appreciative of your leadership. Comments the legislature's decision to put so much of the common start legislation in the budget last year was a really tremendous step. It it codifies so much, but clearly, you know, it's now a question of investments. And so the wait list being number 1. We've got to figure out how to move forward. You know, last year, the legislation's13516 part of the common start legislation talked about going to the 80 fifth SMI. It's such an important step in the common start legislation of trying to bring more lower middle class families into the into the subsidy of the system of Massachusetts. The problem is, we have such a wait list under the fiftieth. EEC is now gonna be have an interesting challenge as they move forward in putting children on the wait list in the up to 80 percentile. How they segregate that or keep a separate list or, you know, they're all going in 1. It's a tough given their interesting computer system, should be an interesting, task. But for us, it's a question of how do we build up, you know, the capacity to serve the numerous children that are on the wait list? How do we recruit and retain staff? How do we pay that staff?13566 A livable wage so they'll stay in the field. It is indeed13570 a statewide problem, but we are gratified by the progress she made last year,13576 and we looked incremental growth is what we'll continue to look for.
CLAIRE HIGGINS - Yeah. I think that's right. The, the, you know, the challenge too is that, unlike public schools where the you you have to take everybody that walks in the door and hire to that. If we can't hire, we can't take those kids. Right? So, it doesn't matter if we increase the SMI.13602 If we can't hire, we can't take13604 the kids. Right? So I'm just gonna keep coming back to that13608 key issue. Right? And then, as the commissioner said, and right and13614 for all good reasons, DTA families13616 and children involved at DCF are priority populations for us.13620 Right? So and that has its roots really in the initial federal funding for childcare coming out of protective services under title 20 and then welfare reform. That's where this all comes from. Right? Those priorities. And they're the right priorities. But it does mean the waiting list becomes much more complicated.13641
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much, Senator. Representative Moran, please.
MORAN - Thank you very much, madam chair. And really, thank you for being here. I represent a district, centered on Boston South End in Lower Roxbury that has unusually some of the wealthiest people in the13661 state and some of the poorest people in the state And, the legendary my 1 of my predecessors legendary, Byron Rushing and his his spouse, Freda Garcia, have supported for a long time a wonderful organization called United South End Settlements. And so I've been privileged to learn more about this organization and how it serves the community, the many, many organizations like this across the state. And I guess my 1 takeaway is which you've already articulated today, is that the waiting list is just too darn long, you know. And so, as I, you know, now, as in my second term try to continue to advocate for early education, my question is this, is what is you can point to 1 piece of evidence? I mean, it's common sense,13706 of course, that the earlier we get to kids,13708 the better. But is there a piece of evidence or some type of study that I can continue to proselytize about just to make13714 sure people understand in the halls of the House of Representatives or in the Senate across, you know, Beacon Hill or in my community, the importance of early education?
EDDY - This is the recent 1 from Harvard Glassman, that we could certainly get over to you, representative, that I know that that, Jeffrey Glassman, I believe was his name, did a presentation to the UC board 2 or 3 months ago. Leibman. Leibman. Sorry, I got the wrong name wrong, but it's he is from Harpendale. I got the right college. And so we can get that over to13751 you. I mean, look, the good folks at USIS, United South Bend Settlement, they're 1 of13757 our members long time. They do a tremendous job down there. Programs like them are facing such a difficult challenge of trying to get children into care. It's tricky. And,13769 you know, the wait list has13771 now been frozen. We are in our twelfth month of a freeze. Unlikely to unfreeze sometime before the end of the fiscal year. It's so vitally important that we not go through another fiscal year in f y 26, leaving that list frozen still. So we look forward to working with you on it, representative.
SPEAKER6 - Thanks very much.
CLAIRE HIGGINS - I just wanna say that that, you know, birth to 5, you don't people don't generally understand what the learning is in birth to13797 5. Like, what are kids learning? Right? I mean, everybody ends up knowing their colors and numbers. Right? And but what are they actually learning? Well, the stuff they're learning is the stuff about how to be a functional human being. They're gaining executive function. If Bill smacks me, I'm not gonna punch him back. Right? Is that right? Like, that's executive function. Oh, he has the toy, and13823 I can't take it. How13825 many people have you worked with as grown-ups who don't have very good executive function? They probably didn't have a very good early education. Okay. So the things that are being learned are kind of mysterious because if you're grown up, you don't really remember what you were doing between birth and 5. Right? You don't. That's not like a vivid part of your. You remember being in the third grade and being mad at whoever it was.
But you remember that you learned different things there. Right? Not birth to 5. Maybe you remember kindergarten. And the other thing is I don't have kids, but I come from a family with a lot of kids. And I think parents kind of blank out from birth to 5 once the kid is, like, set on their way. Right? Like, because it's so exhausting, like,13873 to have toddlers and infants. But the learning is phenomenal. It's 90% of the brain. The way the brain works is it happens in those13886 first 5 years. And that's not when we're investing as much money as we are at the other end of the spectrum. So there are reports that the Harvard, School of the Developing Child has lots of really good resources on how brain development works. That's what you're investing in. You're investing in emotional regulation. You're investing in collaborative approaches to working13910 with other humans. Right? That's what's going on there. And trusting that what the people are telling you is you're in a safe place and you can take in that information. Right? That's what you're learning in high-quality early education.
COMERFORD - Thank you, representative. Thank you, Claire. And Bill, we're over to Senator Olivera And then, Representative Holmes.
OLIVEIRA - Great. Thank you, Bill. And thank you, Mayor. And first of all, publicly, I just wanna say, I know you're gonna be having a transition soon. Thank you for all your work on behalf of us, as citizens. You've done an incredible13943 job. Thank you. My question has to do with the workforce and the pipeline of the workforce going through, to be perfectly honest. I'm speaking to a classroom of early educators tomorrow at Springfield Technical Community College. But I'm just wondering from the higher ed end, what could you see our higher ed institutions doing more to better support the workforce as they're entering the field? Where are the gaps that you're seeing in13970 some of their type of professional development and that continuing development? You know, we know that it just doesn't stop once you go into the classroom, that you need to continue to have that professional development. What do you see are some of the skill sets that are lacking right now that the higher ed side could kind of boost or bolster up in order to support going into the classroom?
CLAIRE HIGGINS - You know, that's an interesting question. And, Bill, I don't know if you'd. I think the education for early educators at the community college level and at the college level is good. I mean, I think people are getting the kind of coursework they need, but they also need to have almost apprenticeships in the classrooms. They need to be with teachers who model to them and they and they understand. I hired a lot of it early educators during my career, and I know that some of them would come in thinking, oh, they're just little kids, and they're so sweet and they're so nice and then they get bit. And that's the last day of work for them. You know? So you just gotta. It's a combination of coursework and really mentorship and helping people work through it. And the way I learned through college in college was I was an active teacher, and I think we're seeing a lot of that. I'm looking at the commissioner. People are in the classroom, their classrooms informing their coursework, and the coursework informing their classroom work. So I think that continues. And then high-quality, early education sites do in-service training. Do a lot of in-service training and they do a lot of individual and group teacher support, which, has to be paid for through the rate. If you're gonna to have somebody do that, you have to have that money to pay for those people to come in and do that or have a supervisor that has the time and energy to do that.
OLIVEIRA - I would also add that I would just wanna highlight 1 program at Springfield Technical Community College. They recently partnered with Head Start and brought them on campus, which is a benefit not only to the students that are going to SDCC that are parents, but also a benefit to have somebody right on-site where they can take educated future educators to a classroom and do that type of hands on learning that's necessary.
CLAIRE HIGGINS - I would love to see an early education lab in every single 1 of14109 the community colleges. Right? We tried to do that at GCC. We had the money in the budget at 1 point, and then we lost14115 the money. So, I think having on-site early education sites at community colleges is a good thing.
SPEAKER3 - Great. Thank you.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you so much. Representative Holmes.
HOLMES - So, thank you again for this year's testimony. I am a grandson of a head start teacher, spent her whole life and so in a community that I grew up in where we were all poor, so we thought everyone went to head start, didn't realize it was a program that you actually had to qualify for, but because we were all poor, everyone qualified for it. My struggle with the testimony is: Why is the wait list number 1? Let me ask you why. Let me say what I mean. It seems to me that the struggle is still the pay, and that if it's so difficult to get people to stay, as you say your analogy of the taller the kid, the bigger the check, right, it'll be good to know what is the average pay for for what everyone makes and then shouldn't reimbursement be number 1? Shouldn't we, when you say you're trying to stabilize the system, which is what I heard you say, it seems like to stabilize the system, we need to stabilize it with the pay first, get the system so that it can handle the people.
Because, as you said the thing that can impact these children most is these folks leaving, so before we add another 2,000 people. It seems like the higher priority should be reimbursement, just from what I'm hearing you say. Get the pay to something that is14230 more comparable14231 that we don't have people jump14233 and then bring on the 2,000 more people because when you get to 30,000 as you say, that's because was that 30,000 because we raised it from 50% AMI or whatever the number is to 85%14248 so we're never gonna get to 85, the way it sounds like we're going now but if you can tell me what the14256 average pay is now and then where do you think we need to try to get to and it seems like can you balance why not reimbursement from my logic, why not reimbursement to hold down this workforce, as we say the workforce behind the workforce, we need to hold them down, get them stable, and then come back and say let's add more people.
CLAIRE HIGGINS - I'm gonna say you're spot on in terms of what your analysis is here. Right? But the question is, those 3-year-olds are 3-year-olds now, and that parent needs to go to work now. And so that's kind of what we're thinking about. But I wanna note that if you had asked that question 3 years ago, I would have been hooting and hollering. But we've actually done it, and I'm gonna refer to the commissioner again, a cost of running the childcare centers. It used to be based on a market study of some sort. But now it's actually, what is it gonna cost to do this? And we've seen, I think, the rates have gone up 27% in the last 2 years, if I'm correct on that. I'm looking, you know. So, in Western14324 Mass, our rates have gone up 27%,14326 which has made a huge14328 difference. Right?
HOLMES - Correct.
CLAIRE HIGGINS - So, yes, we have to work on the rates. But, yes, we also have to think about those 3 and 4-year-olds and 2-year-olds and that parent in the moment. So it's a constant balance of we're simply on the wait list. And for the last couple of years, we haven't done that much on the wait list. Now we're trying to do something on both the rates and the wait list, and they have to kind of play in parallel. Unlike childcare is not an entitlement. You're not entitled to care for your child if you have to go to work. You have to figure it out. If your kid is in kindergarten, all of a sudden, you have an entitlement, at least for some portion of the day, to care that you don't pay for.
HOLMES - So I hear you're saying it is not number 1 because we've already moved it up 27%.
CLAIRE HIGGINS - In certain parts of the state, we have moved it up. That's not doesn't mean it's where it is, but it's sort of this kind of we gotta keep moving both up.
EDDY - Right? It's just important to note that there are for years, the14385 federal government essentially had you do a market rate study and set rates. They've now14391 allowed states to move toward cost-based rates. EEC has taken the first steps toward moving toward a cost-based14398 system. We are looking forward to working with the department in the coming year or 2 to hopefully make even more progress, maybe even begin the transition toward cost-based rates. But Claire's right. You run the risk if we're almost if we don't we sat last September thinking about what are we gonna ask for in a budget ask this year. And then the natural temptation for a provider organization is to come up here and say, we need rates rates and rates to try and raise salaries. The problem is we're gonna have children age out of early education before they get off the wait list. And so it is a balance. And, yes, we're asking the legislature to do multiple things on the same issue, which we know is a finite amount of money, but I don't know how we come up as much as we wanna see our salaries increase, and we can get you a chart of where salaries are statewide. But there's a need to balance it and bring some children off the wait list and try and make some progress. That's the answer I can give you.
SPEAKER8 - Thank you.
COMERFORD - Thank you very much. I don't see any other questions, so we will thank you very much for your work and service.
CLAIRE HIGGINS - Well, thank you. Thank you for your service.
COMERFORD - Thank you. Our next panel is focused on local aid, and we are pleased to have Adam Chaplin, executive director and CEO of the Massachusetts Municipal Association; Cassandra Grove, vice president of Mass Municipal Association; and the mayor of Amesbury. Mayor Grove, welcome. Denise Demkowski, president, Small Town Administrators of Massachusetts or STAM) and town manager of STOW. Welcome to you all.
SPEAKER9 - Thank you. Dive right in? Oh. Dive right in.
SPEAKER4 - Okay. Absolutely. Dive right in.
ADAM CHAPDELINE - MMA - Senator Comenford, representative and Duffy, distinguished members of the committee, I wanna start by thanking you for this opportunity to speak before you all today. For the record, my name is Adam Chaplain, and I have the pleasure of serving as the executive director and CEO of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. I'd like to start by expressing our gratitude on behalf of all 351 cities and towns for your commitment as a legislature to a the14559 recent fiscal years, you've all led the way on critical increases14564 for unrestricted general government aid, increasing chapter seventy's minimum aid per student, including increasing it from $30 per14572 student to a hundred and $4 per student in this current fiscal year and making major investments in supplemental local road and bridge funding and much, much more.

These efforts are greatly appreciated by local officials. And again, this year, cities and towns across the state are asking the legislature to provide strong investments in essential local services to increase unrestricted general government aid. In recent years, the legislature made the critically important and deliberate decision to increase UGA above the percentage increase in forecasted state revenue growth. This reflected an understanding of the many challenges that cities and towns were facing while providing an essential investment by the Commonwealth that directly supports each and every community in Massachusetts. Being mindful of the state's cautious fiscal outlook for 2026, we respectfully ask for your consideration of a UGA increase of at least 3% at a cost of $10,400,000 above the governor's house 1 proposal. Further, we support funding for critical Chapter 70 school aid that matches the promise of the Student Opportunity Act.
Now in its fifth year of a 6-year rollout, the House 1 proposal includes $75 per student in minimum aid, higher than the statutory minimum of $30 per student. While this is a positive first step, it means that out of a total Chapter 70 increase of $420,000,000 in the governor's proposal, 27% of school districts would be receiving 91% of that increase. This leaves the remaining 73% of school districts to share 38,000,000 of new aid. Now, many of you may be wondering how it is possible that the legislature has made such significant increases to Chapter 70 through the SOA in recent years, but you're still hearing from local officials that they're facing seismic budget challenges. And what I would say is, in fact, both things are true. The SOA is a massively needed and positive investment in k through 12 education.
The SOA commitment exponentially grew the state's foundation budget, of which the state pays 41% each year, and cities and towns are collectively responsible for 59%. So as the foundation budget pie grows much, much larger with further SOA investments, so do the required contributions from municipalities. Under normal circumstances, this might have caused some strain on municipal budgets as they tried to reach these new spending levels. But this strain has been compounded by multiple pressures on local budgets that are beyond their control. A pandemic that has led to lasting effects on student learning, prompting the need for additional educators to help students catch up on the basics of reading and math, special education costs that have increased by 37% in the past 4 years, inflationary pressures that have touched all areas of spending, school transportation increases, new demands for employee pay and benefits, charter school tuition, and the list goes on and on. Municipalities must now stretch to reach these new levels of education spending while working within the confines of proposition 2 and a half, and the14776 math just isn't working. Between fiscal years 2007 to 02/2021, required local contributions increased by 1,800,000,000.0.

In just the past 4 fiscal years, that number is 1,100,000,000.0. With Prop 2 and a half limiting cities and towns' major source of revenue, property taxes, to a total increase of just 2 and a half percent over the previous year, municipalities are using almost all or all of their new revenue each year to meet their school spending requirements. Unfortunately, that means that every other municipal department remains14813 flat or must experience cuts to create a balanced budget. This is where the legislature's help in supporting this transition has been critical. Whether increases to unrestricted general government aid, per excuse me, per pupil minimum aid, school transportation reimbursements, special education circuit breaker, rural school aid, and local road and bridge funding. With a concerning federal funding landscape, continued and additional support for these accounts in FY 26 is essential. We are grateful for the attention that the legislature has provided to these challenges in recent years, especially regarding minimum aid. This year, we're urging your consideration of a minimum increase of $150 per pupil, which would positively impact 24514863 of 318, or 77%, of school districts statewide.
This would represent an additional investment of 39,500,000.0 over the governor's house 1 budget, but there's no doubt it would make a meaningful difference for these challenges that we know districts and municipalities are facing. In the interest of time, our written testimony will cover our additional requests for other key local aid accounts. Lastly, we respectfully ask your consideration of an early agreement for key local aid accounts such as AGA and Chapter 70. These 2 requests would total less than $50,000,000 above the house 1 proposal. An early agreement would provide critical budget certainty to local officials. Town meetings are scheduled, and city councils will start their budget process in a matter of weeks. In a time where the federal government is providing the opposite of certainty, we urge the Commonwealth to be a supportive force for stability on these priority Jerry sheet accounts. Now, at this time, I'd like to team, turn things over to mayor Gove of Ansboury.
KASSANDRA GOVE - CITY OF AMESBURY - Thank you. Good afternoon, Senator Commerford, Representative Duffy, and the distinguished members of the committee. Thank you for having me. I'm Mayor Cassandra Gove, and I'm proud to be here representing Amesbury, but I also have the privilege of serving as the current vice president of the MMA board of directors. As Adam mentioned, the challenge of rising costs is impacting communities of all sizes. In Amesbury, for FY 26, we are proposing to raise the amount the city contributes to the school budget by nearly 5%. And yet, we are still falling short of what the school department needs to create a level services budget, which14972 is 8.44%, and that's just for level services. As a result, despite funding it to the highest level that I have been able to recommend in the last 5 years, Amesbury will see the elimination of services and programs for our children that are integral to their learning experience.
These include things like removing all buses that provide transportation to and from our comprehensive high school in a city that is 14 square miles, eliminating our middle school world language program entirely, eliminating our high school and early elementary school librarians, consequently closing our libraries. We closed the middle school 1 a few years ago. Reducing teachers in art and gym, reducing nursing services and secretaries, eliminating cocurricular activities and the late buses that go with them for our middle school, and more. These reductions and complete eliminations are contradictory to the conversations that happen in rooms like this about school safety, childhood enrichment, equity and inclusion, literacy and learning, chronic absenteeism, social and emotional learning, and I could go on. But when the rubber meets the road, this is what it looks like. Under the House 1 proposal, Amesbury would receive an increase to UGA of $57,000 and an increase to Chapter 78 of $144,000 for a total increase of $201,000. But as an example, the amount that we would be required to pay for students to attend charter schools this year will increase by $238,000, basically wiping out our increases in those 2 major state aid accounts. If you were a parent in Amesbury and you heard that list of cuts, what would you do?
This cycle is dangerously close to being15091 a race to the bottom for our public comprehensive15093 schools. Over the last few fiscal years, the legislature has built on the administration's proposal, increasing the amount for UGA and Chapter 70 aid. We are so grateful for those increases and hope we can count on your support once again this year because they have made a tremendous difference. As Adam mentioned, early numbers would provide critical certainty to our budget planning at the local level. Our school committee will vote on its budget recommendation tonight. It is our hope that you will strongly consider an early agreement on these 2 local aid accounts. It might be the difference for us between treading water and drowning. Thank you for your time today, and I will pass this to Denise in Stowe from Stowe.
DENISE DEMBKOSKI - TOWN OF STOW- Good afternoon, Senator Commerford, Representative Duffy, and distinguished members of the committee. I'm Denise Dembkoski, the town administrator in Stow. Thank you for having me. As my colleagues have mentioned, our local officials are bracing for a difficult budget season for fiscal year 26, where the constraints of municipal finance are clashing with rising costs across the board and generally flat revenue sources. Thank you for all your consideration of these important budget priorities for our cities and towns. In my role as president of the small town administrators of Massachusetts, I am hearing from our members, the 92 towns in the Commonwealth with 12,000 or fewer residents, that the fiscal challenges this year will be daunting. This makes the state and local partnership even more critical. Adam mentioned the importance of UGA, and we couldn't agree more. UGA provides essential funding for vital municipal and school services, allowing communities to deliver core services to residents and businesses. In towns with already limited revenue sources, UGA plays a massive part in the local budgeting process. 1 area I'd like to focus on is where the house and senate have a recent track record of making strategic investments in the massive backlog of need in our local infrastructure.
Last year, you all provided $45,000,000 from Sartax revenue in supplemental funding to support the desperate needs of local roads and bridges. We wanna thank you for making local roads and bridges a priority for surtax revenue, and we hope you will continue to build on that this year. There are more than 30,000 miles of roads under municipal control, which represents nearly 90% of all road miles statewide. This funding is put to use immediately by cities and towns to repair crumbling local roads, advance critically needed projects, and improve safety on our neighborhood roadways. Given the loss of purchasing power of existing sources of funding and other local budget pressures, we respectfully request at least 125,000,000 total of surtax funding for this incredibly important program for fiscal core municipal infrastructure, which will benefit every city and town in the Commonwealth. Regarding Chapter 70, the education funding formula is based on outdated student enrollment assumptions that failed to reflect the realities of today's school districts.
While the formula guarantees that districts receive at least the same amount of aid as the previous year, it does not provide adequate protections to ensure sufficient core funding for all essential components of a school district's operations. Since the last major update to the chapter 70 formula in fiscal 2007, statewide student enrollment has steadily15307 declined, resulting in 232 school districts becoming reliant on hold harmless funding. This formula assumes higher student enrollment than many districts currently experience, leading to a growing number of districts in this hold harmless status. These districts receive only minimal per pupil aid increases, making it difficult to keep up with rising operational costs. As Chapter 78 remains largely stagnant for hold harmless districts, the financial burden of increased costs falls onto the municipalities. Local budgets already constrained by Prop 2 and a half struggle to find necessary educational services, leading to cuts in programming, staffing, and student support services.
The lack of adjustments for inflation, special education, and essential services results in underfunded systems that fail to meet the evolving needs of our students. As student enrollment continues to decline, more15363 districts will become dependent on hold harmless aid, further exacerbating inequities in funding distribution. School budgets now account for over 60% of municipal budgets with no sign of slowing. While investment in education is critical, the financial strain significantly impacts our ability to maintain essential municipal services, including police, fire, and public works. We need a short-term approach to assist our local partners this year while simultaneously creating a path for a longer-term fix. In the short term, increased minimal aid, as both Adam and mayor Gove mentioned, would make a big difference.
We were pleased to see the action in last year's senate budget to create a chapter 70 task force to deal with the near future that this group could further study and make recommendations on various aspects of the chapter 70 formula, including issues related to required local contribution calculations, impacts on municipal aid districts, and issues of low and declining student enrollment. We hope the legislature includes a similar position provision in this year's budget. Stronger state support is essential to sustaining municipal services and ensuring fair and equitable funding for our schools. If these challenges remain unaddressed, we will continue pricing residents, especially our seniors, not only out of our communities but ultimately out of the state. Thank you for your consideration and for all of your collective work to support our small towns and all municipalities in the Commonwealth.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much for your service. I think we'd all agree that while we have deep respect for our federal colleagues and we know the work that we have in front of us at the state level, there is just nothing harder than local service. And so, thank you to those of you who are serving, and thank you for the advocacy of STEM and MMA. We'll open it up for questions. I have 1. I'll take the privilege of asking: 1. Let's talk about the Municipal Modernization Act filed by Governor Healy. Again, this session didn't15489 get over the line, last session. Talk about how that interacts with local aid for us if you can.
SPEAKER12 - Sure. I'll15499 start.
CHAPDELAINE- Thank you for that question, Senator. So I mean, I think the first thing I would say is the Municipal Empowerment Act. Oh 0, I again. It all blends into the same, you had me at municipal. As it15520 would be no surprise, the MEA is really 1 of our15526 top priorities entering this legislative session. As you know, it is a wide-ranging bill that includes flexibility under procurement, flexibility around different ways that local government operates, and more enforcement possibilities for double poles,15540 but it also proposes several different ways that revenue opportunities15544 could be enhanced for local15546 government. And I suppose what I would say is we are very excited about that15552 package. And when you think about that15554 package compared up against the15556 budget, that package will15558 make the operation of local government easier for local officials, in some instances more efficient, and if adopted in its totality, also expand the menu of local revenue options for local government. I don't think any of that would alleviate the need for the investments that we've talked about today, but it certainly would be some form of a pressure release valve that could help local governments still needing that state support but also have options locally they could consider to meet the challenges they face.
COMERFORD - Thank you very much. Mayor, did you wanna add?
GOVE - Sure. I absolutely agree with everything that Adam has said. You know, it would not, you know, it would be a a pressure relief, but I don't think that it, you know, sort of, subsidizes any of our other need. You know, for us, it's a way to diversify our revenue. In Amesbury, we do have hotel, motel, and meals taxes. We actually have a special revenue account that that money goes into, and it's specifically for our roads and sidewalks. It's the only money that we appropriate annually for roads and sidewalks in addition to Chapter 90. So I just think that that is an example of how every municipality handles their local options differently,15625 and options and flexibility are what's15629 important for us.
COMERFORD - Thank you very much. That's a helpful texture.
SPEAKER10 - Yeah.
SPEAKER4 - Denise, did you wanna add?
DEMBKOSKI - Yes, please. I think for the smaller towns, while I agree with everything my colleagues have said, for us, it comes to, I think, the efficiencies that the Empowerment Act could create, specifically around things like procurement. I know I put things out to bid 2 and 3 times because we're not getting people to bid on our contracts. We're wasting time. We're wasting money15655 on small things that are under 50,000. We have to get bids over 50,000. We have to do a sealed process. We're just wasting resources, and we're still not getting people to bid on our products. So I think raising those procurement thresholds is huge. We appreciate what the legislature has done for the remote meeting, and we hope that that continues going into the future. That allows the flexibility for the small towns to be able to manage their boards and committees and, quite candidly, their volunteer staff. I know that I will lose a bunch of volunteers if those do not stay codified into the future. People don't wanna come to in-person meetings anymore. They don't wanna participate. So for us, it's more about the flexibility that the Empowerment Act gives, in addition to the local revenue options that would certainly help our struggling budgets.
COMERFORD - Very helpful. Another question, please, from assistant vice chair Diggs.
DIGGS - Not really a question, a statement.15706 I'd be doing exactly what you're doing if the shoe were on the other foot.15712 Because, you know, kids are our future and not having buses, you know, so many different difficulties that you're you're having to take away. It's, we got our we got our hands full, and we'll, as a unit, we'll get together and figure something out. But just know that we're hearing you, we're listening, and there's a lot of things that we gotta we gotta fix. So thank you.
SPEAKER12 - Thank you, representative.
COMERFORD - Well, that's well said. And I think that will conclude your panel. Oh 0, I'm sorry, Senator. Senator Fattman.
SEN FATTMAN - Thank you, madam chair. And thank you to the committee for testifying. I served 2 terms on the board of selectmen in my hometown, so I can empathize with your position, and I really appreciate all your advocacy here today, especially on the local aid accounts. My question is for Mr. Chaplain as the representative of MMA. Are you familiar with the advanced clean truck and heavy-duty omnibus legislation and regulations? And what are you hearing from your members on that issue, if you are?
CHAPDELAINE - We are very familiar with that issue. Our legislative analyst, who's running point on that, is here with us today. What we're hearing from our members is a lot of concern. Not concern about the standards themselves and the goal of meeting the standards, but the availability of those trucks on the market right now and then the corresponding inability of meeting municipal needs if those trucks aren't available, trucks aren't available. Excuse me. So15812 we've been having a lot of dialogues with15814 the DEP about those regulations. I know they have been accommodating in some fashion, but15820 there are still many concerns that remain. So we continue to be15824 advocates for pushing out15826 of certain requirements because our bottom line is there are certain things that need to be done. Trash needs to be hauled, snow needs to be plowed, and other public works and infrastructure-related things need to be done. Those trucks need to be available to the local government.
FATTMAN - Yeah. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And I think the town administrator from STOW mentioned we have 30,000 miles of municipal roads. I was a bit tardy getting here this morning. I actually had convened a meeting of all the DPW directors in my district a few weeks ago for this morning, and I represent 19 communities in Worcester and Hamden County, and 100% of them said that they were very concerned about the particular issue. 1 of the deliverables amongst the legislative delegation that was on that call and in the meeting was to reach out to the MMA. And I walked in, and you were the third group to testify. So if I was not going to bring it up, I'd be abdicating my responsibility. There's been a discussion about pushing that date back. And so 1 of the things that came up on the call today was just in a snowstorm, for example.
A lot of these municipalities run vehicles for 24 to 48 hours nonstop in order to accommodate the conditions and make sure that everyone is safe. In addition to that, you know, there was a concern, a particular concern about potential 2 public safety events happening simultaneously, fire trucks potentially having to respond to an issue while plows are out on the road or potentially if it's feasible at some point that they're15918 being charged, and15920 there's a simultaneous event and there's not enough charging stations to permit a response. So knowing that is a major problem, what do you think about the pushback as far as specifics? Do you think we should push it? It's now it has been pushed back 2 years. Should it be 5 years? I mean, it seems like the technology is not there to accommodate the measurement and the goal. So what do you think about the time that should be allotted to pushing it back?
CHAPDELAINE - Thank you, Senator. So I can't say that I sit here today knowing what the exact date should be based on the available technology, but I can say that we will be willing partners with our members that you're speaking with and with any any legislator who wants to have this discussion because I mean, the we agree on the point that you're making that these vehicles need to be ready to roll and, you know, whether it is eventually a new technology or the existing technology or somewhere in between, if we can't have the confidence that those public safety responses are gonna be able to be met, then we need we need a different path because we can't sacrifice public infrastructure, public safety, public works because of15991 these regulations.
FATTMAN - Yeah. I appreciate that and thank15993 you very much for the answer. You did mention that you had a legislative person working on that or analyst, and it would be great if they would be willing to take a look at that to try to understand because I think we have sort of stopped a little short on our side of the equation in that regard. And I wanna make sure, as you just said, everyone is safe and, you know, that our municipalities are well represented on that front. I'm sorry.
DEMBKOSKI - May I add a comment? So16019 for us, you know, 1 of our concerns with this legislation is we're currently waiting 3 to 4 years for public safety vehicles, the larger vehicles, fire engines, ambulances, and our DPW trucks are waiting 1 to 2 years. So when and if this legislation is enacted, it's gonna cause a backlog again, and we're gonna be waiting years to get our vehicles. The small towns, we run them into the ground. We're now budgeting for vehicles that we're not gonna need until 5 or 6 years down the road, which is causing financial hardships for us, but we have to in order to get in the pipeline to get this vehicle when we're going to need it. And I think that needs to be taken into consideration when this bill rolls out, that the planning purposes and the time factor has to allow communities to have the funding, but also for these manufacturers like Peterbilt to have to change their entire structure to be able to keep up with the demand that we're gonna need because we will not be able to sustain that waiting period.
FATTMAN - Is it fair to say that municipalities subcontract out plowing to, you know, private,
DEMBKOSKI - So we do. Yeah. We still have all of our staff. We have enough trucks between Sanders and Plows for all of our staff. We have 10 public works employees, but then we contract out the additional services that are needed.
GOVE - I'll just add to that, if I may, that we not only contract out, but we also rent vehicles because everyone on staff does plow, but we don't have enough vehicles for everyone to be in a truck to plow. We actually rent our additional trucks for plowing.
FATTMAN - The Reason I raised that question is that while we extended the municipal regulations out 2 years, we did not do that for the commercial industry and the private individuals. So, in a year from now, they will not be able to register their vehicles in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And if there is indeed a problem with, you know, contracting out services for plowing municipally, then this runs into another problem that perhaps hasn't been well thought through. I'd also just mention that, you know, the cleanliness issue of 1 of the things that's been provided to me is that, we'll work on the engines, and we'll keep those same engines going. Like16143 you just said, you've run them into the ground. You know, just the point they made is we if we add newer technology, even if it wasn't fully electric, it'd probably be cleaner. So
COMERFORD - Thank you, senator Fatman. I appreciate that very much. And it actually illustrates the complexity of the jobs you do every single day because that's 1 decision that you're grappling with in municipalities across the Commonwealth. Yeah. And I think it shows how enormous a task it is for you to put that puzzle together. So thank you very much. I don't know whether you've submitted your testimony to the committee yet. If you haven't, please do. There was I know a lot of my colleagues were taking notes, but I'm sure we'd benefit from your written remarks. Yes. We will.
SPEAKER8 - Thank you very much. Thank you so much.
COMERFORD - Next up, we have a panel featuring Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association; Doctor Mark Libertore, faculty at Manning College of Information and Computer Science here at the University of Massachusetts; and Erica Giampietro, executive director of Massachusetts Alliance for Early College. You are very welcome. As this panel gets started- and it was my fault for not saying that earlier- we're going to do 1 question per person through the panel, and16233 then we will try not to do follow-ups on that question, but we can come back. But it's just important that we get everybody's question in. And you can text, rep Duffy or me if you wanna get in the queue.16245 And welcome, welcome. Please.
MAX PAGE - MASSACHUSETTS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION - Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Max Page. I'm president of the 15,000 member Massachusetts Teachers Association. Perhaps as importantly, I'm also a 1984 graduate of Amherst Regional High School, having served as the first student representative on the regional school committee. My 3 children also had the privilege of going through the Amherst Public Schools, and I'm very proud to have been educated by the members of the Amherst Pelham Education Association. I was so proud to see students from Amherst and Gateway, Mohawk, and Northampton, I think, all here today. They, together with those students and educators, are the foundation of democracy, and they will save it. I've submitted a detailed letter that addresses MTA specific budget requests.
You'll see that there's a broad and deep consensus among the pre K-12 community about the desperate need to solve the fiscal crisis that is threatening the quality of our public schools, and you'll hear from many members of the United for our Future Coalition today. We have to present the catastrophic layoffs in my own Amherst Public Schools and those that Senator Commerford listed all around here and all across the state. And we must launch a new foundation budget16319 review commission immediately. We also have an16323 ongoing fiscal crisis in public higher education, which has meant excessive student debt, continued exploitation of16329 adjunct faculty, and a wage scale that16331 is the worst among our comparative states, and which is making recruiting and retaining the very best faculty and staff difficult. But rather than walk through our line item request here, I will send something like that later. I'd like to speak directly about this time, 1 of the most dangerous in our history, and urge us all together to meet the moment.
And I wanna just start actually by reminding us of all the great work we've done. We've talked I've been hearing it a lot in the room, so I don't need to go in detail, the Student Opportunity Act that we fought for, our members fought for with many of you, and won the fair share amendment, which is even exceeding my wildest expectations, $2,500,000,000 every year from half a percent of, the wealthiest people in the state of very small number of households. And it is allowed to for us to have universal public schools, the literacy launch, free tuition and fees at our community college, the success program, not to mention the fixed roads and bridges and free regional buses all across the state, and that's only the beginning. So we all should be proud. You, us, we all did this together to pass the fair share amendment and then make these investments, and I'm very proud of that. But we can't rest on our rest on our laurels, and we cannot only be on the defense in the face of the most serious attack on public education in our lifetimes. In his famous essay from 1984, politics and the English language, George Orwell argued that quote, in our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible, designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
So let's use plain language and be crystal clear with each other about what is happening. Like Viktor Orban, the Hungarian dictator, and like authoritarians and fascists all over the world today and over the past century, Trump and his ilk intend to eviscerate public education from pre-K through higher ed. They seek to16448 destroy free universal public education16450 where we nurture future adults who know truthful history, celebrate a diverse nation, and gain the skills to be successful members of society,16458 critical thinkers, and active citizens. All these qualities are existential threats to authoritarian regimes that seek docile citizens who have been stuffed with propaganda. In higher ed, where they're where they are further along in swinging the wrecking ball, they aim to crush the research mission of our universities, the tradition of open dialogue and protests on our campuses, and the pursuit of knowledge wherever it leads. The Trump administration is also seeking to achieve 2 goals at once: cut public education funding, which then will help to justify the most important item on their agenda, which is further tax cuts for billionaires and multinational corporations so they can cement the control of this nation by an oligarchy. This evisceration of the Department of Education is making me make no doubt about it: just a prelude to massive cuts.
They would have a devastating impact on our students, our economy, and our democracy. So we'll be faced16512 with a stark choice: accept those devastating cuts or protect our students and our economy by offsetting both the tax cuts and education cuts by enacting Mid Massachusetts policies that are the opposite of those being pursued in Washington. I don't consider it a choice. It is an obligation to defend public education. We do that first and foremost for our people, but we do it because Massachusetts invented the very idea of universal public education and has built the finest public education system in the nation. Those who hate public education would love nothing more than to see Massachusetts slowly and steadily, or rapidly and chaotically, let our public education system decline. Remember that the playbook of the right wing is to intentionally make government fail and then declare16560 that it is a failure. We'll fight alongside our congressional delegation, our incredible congressional delegation to resist the16568 terrible attacks at the federal level, but now we also must do everything possible in our state to protect our public schools, colleges, and universities. Here's a fact I hope all of you16578 know or you should know.
If Massachusetts were a nation, call it the Republic Of Massachusetts, it would be per capita the16585 fourth wealthiest nation on earth.16587 Per capita,16589 the fourth wealthiest nation on earth, and the millionaires and billionaires are not leaving, I would be glad to pay for any van to get any16597 billionaire to leave, because they don't, because they actually make lots of money here, and they want to live in this profoundly wonderful state. So please never say that this commonwealth does not have the money to protect our greatest invention and our greatest pathways forward for raising the funds for our public schools and colleges and the broader needs of our society. First, when billions of new dollars flow to those multinational corporations from the upcoming Trump tax cuts, we can capture some of that new revenue, and we call it the corporate fair share campaign.
The technical name for this in tax policy is the very best name in all of tax policy. It's Gilti, g I l t I. Many other states follow the federal government in taxing half of that income. This is income that is profits that are offshore, hidden into offshore tax havens. But for some reason, in Massachusetts, we only tax 5% of that. If we just went to what other New England states were doing, other states, the 50%, we would raise hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps over a half a billion a year, simply for getting in line with other states. Second, we also have to be prepared to draw on our rainy day fund. We have built up. You all have built up 1 of the largest rainy day funds in the nation. And perhaps we can all repeat, it is raining. So we call on you to use that as well. So I offer my hand, and those are the 15,000 public school and college educators to you as we take on this threat to our commonwealth. We cannot just fight back or remain in the defensive crouch. We have to also fight forward. Thank you.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much. Doctor Page, I'm not sure which 1 of you good humans is going next. Erica? Or would you like to? It might make sense. Okay. Mark is a good higher ed, too.
MARC LIBERATORE - UMASS AMHERST - Okay. Distinguished members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to speak here today. My name is Mark Liberatore. I'm a faculty member here in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, CICS. And I'm the co-president of the Massachusetts Society of Society of Professors, the MTA local that represents 1,700 faculty and librarians here on the Commonwealth's flagship campus. As you know, the MTA is asking you to invest $200,000,000 in fair share funds to protect higher education, address wage inequities, mitigate the harms of rising tuitions, and more. I'm going to speak about 1 representative situation here at UMass. In particular, I'm16745 going to talk about the impacts of the recent flurry of federal actions on the UMass scholarship for service, the SFS program for which I serve as co-principal investigator. The SFS program is funded by a grant through the National Science Foundation, and it is specifically authorized by Congress in 15 USC 74 42.
The UMass SFS program is funded through a rough5-yearear and $5,000,000 grant. It's our second, a renewal. It provides a cohort of students each year with significant suppo, rt including high touch academic and career advising from faculty, supplemental academic and support programming, and typically 2 or 3 years of significant financial suppo, rt including a tuition and fee waiver, a stipend, a professional development fund, and so on. In exchange for this generous support, students are obligated to seek and hold employment in a government cybersecurity position at the federal, state, local, or tribal level for a period of time equal to their scholarship duration. It's a recruiting program.
Our SFS program also supports efforts to broaden interest16807 and participation in both cybersecurity and government service, including hosting government cybersecurity workers to speak on campus and sponsoring cybersecurity activities at high school summer camp computing camps. Less than 2 weeks ago, on March 11, we were notified by our program director at the NSF that because the federal government is, quote, expecting budget reductions shortly, they would be pausing the approval of new students into the program effective immediately, specifically to avoid incurring further financial obligations on the NSF. They directed us to assess the amount of unliquidated funds necessary to support existing scholars through graduation, which we were to provide to them by last Friday, the '20 first, for reasons as yet unstated, though I can guess what they are. This pause is problematic for more reasons than it may appear. We will likely end up with few, if any, scholars this coming year because of this pause, permanently depriving a cohort of students of this opportunity and depriving government employers of potential recruits.
This is not hypothetical. We've placed more than 40 students into government service since the first scholar graduated under our initial award in 2017, despite all the events, including a global pandemic in the interim. In addition, the amount we can spend on anything that is not a scholarship, for example, faculty salaries for work performed on the grant, support for guest speakers, summer programs, even our external evaluators visit is directly proportional to the scholarships we fund. So the spendable amount of this award is being capped by this pause, causing other cascading problems. This is all in addition to the chaos16897 that has been introduced into the hiring and retention of new employees at the federal level.
Though I know it creates an opportunity for savvy state and local officials looking to hire cybersecurity experts, we already collaborate with the Commonwealth's Attorney General's Office on an on-campus digital forensics internship opportunity, and we're always looking for creative ways to increase effective collaborations like that 1. In summary, the funding pause and its knock-on effects on just this 1 program are significant, and this is just 1 grant among many. Many of my colleagues in CICS, across the university, and in public education in Massachusetts, with grants and other funding from the NSF, the NIH, the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and other federal agencies, have experienced similar interruptions or cuts. These interruptions will cause lasting harm to the research, education, and outreach missions of the university and the residents16947 of this Commonwealth in this nation. I urge you to backstop for these losses and disruptions in higher ed across the Commonwealth using fair share and16955 other funds and further to use these funds to maintain Massachusetts's leadership as a national and international leader in public higher education. Thank you all for your service and for your time today.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you so much. Erica.
ERIKA GIAMPIETRO - MASSACHUSETTS ALLIANCE FOR EARLY COLLEGE - Chairs Comerford and Duffy and members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to advocate on behalf of Early College. My name is Erika Giampietro, and I am the executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Early College. And I wanna start with appreciation. The legislature and Ways and Means have been leading on early college. Across both branches and both education committees, you all have been listeners, including at our Hill Day 2 weeks ago and your many visits to see your local programs in person. You are advancing supportive legislation. You have driven attention and interest in this program, and you've stepped up with funding, more than $28,000,000 in FY 25. Nothing we talk about today would be possible without what you've done. Thank you. We come to you today to humbly ask that you keep leading by growing early college funding in the FY 26 budget by $3,000,000, explicitly earmarked for early college, to $31,250,000 to keep pace with projected growth. On behalf of our alliance, representing more than 20 K12, higher education, business, and community organizations, we know that this investment is critical for 3 reasons. First, early college is needed. Second, it works. Third, there is a significant unmet need. So first, this is needed. According to UMass Dartmouth Professor of Public Policy Michael Goodman, the vast majority of living wage job openings in Massachusetts today require an associate's degree or more.
And by vast majority, it's 97% if you live in a 1 adult, 1 child household. And it's 82% for a 2-adult, 2-child household. College degrees continue to be the surest path to a life of choice in Massachusetts. And yet, college attendance is down. 25% over the last 10 years, coupled with completion rates that must grow. Without migration and aging on top of that, Mass Inc projects that we will have 200,000 fewer college-educated workers in Massachusetts by 02/1930. Any of these signals alone are unsettling, and combined, they're deeply troubling for individuals, for communities, and for the Massachusetts economy. We need solutions that work. This17131 works. Early college works. Using a rigorous,17135 well-controlled, matched peer methodology, we see that early college is more than doubling the odds of sustained college enrollment for participating students. And we know that means more degrees and more well-paying jobs for our homegrown Massachusetts talent. We hear it loud and clear from today's students. They want to feel that high school is relevant, and they wanna see connections to future careers. Representative Marcy, earlier today, you asked about how we can prepare young people for more jobs in health care. This is what early college can do. A growing number of programs are aligning college coursework and the wrap-around experiences to in-demand careers.

We're particularly excited about the programs that are currently birthing, health care pathways, and educator pathways, which are other topics that've been a focus of the discussions today. And the best part about all of these results, these outcomes, is that they have held impressively amidst a period of significant growth. This leads to my last point. There is significant unmet demand. Over the past 7 years, early college has grown to include 62 high schools and 28 colleges and universities across Massachusetts, serving nearly 9,000 students, the majority low income and students of color. Enrollment has grown on average 53% per year since the program officially launched in the 1819 school year. This year, the eleventh designation cycle, 40 programs17231 submitted applications to17233 join the movement. That's a record. This is healthy snowballing of an initiative that sells itself. Increasingly, students, families, and whole communities are raising their hands for access to this opportunity. In closing, you could structure this funding in a few ways across line items, and we will submit a detailed written testimony with our suggestion. Line item 15 96 24 13, which is increasingly being used to cover growth in higher education course credit reimbursements, is the very place we'll see increased need next year. We think nothing gives more students a fair share of opportunity than early college.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much for your testimony. We have a question from Senator Payano.
PAYANO- Thank you, madam chair. Thank you all for your testimonies. My question is about early college. What do you believe is the biggest barrier for districts to be able to get into the program and also expand it?
GIAMPIETRO - Yeah. I think that right now, the biggest barrier to growth, whether that be17316 expanding current programs or growing new ones, is certainly not demand. That is there. And thanks to you all, it's also not funding. It's not the biggest barrier right now because you've been you've been leading on this, like I said. I think the biggest barrier to growth is the capacity of our higher education system. To see early college grow to the numbers that we'd like, which is from something like 9,000 students today to 25,000 students by 02/1930, it means a lot more students in a lot more seats at our colleges. And right now, what we're hearing from them is rec capacity. The way that we propose to mitigate this is through a really important process that's happening right now. The Department of K 12, the Department of Higher Ed, and the Executive Office of Education are leading a 5-year strategic planning process for early college. The point of this process is to take on these barriers that are in the way. College capacity is solvable. There are a lot of problems that are really hard to fix in education. This is 1 that we can address. We have ideas on how that could be done, but I do feel really positive about it.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much. Representative Higgins and then Senator Kennedy.
HIGGINS - Sorry, madam chair. I wasn't prepared with the mic. Thank you for your testimony. I think kind of following up on that capacity question.17406 Max, can you talk a little bit more17408 about the exploitation of adjunct faculty, kind of how the overreliance, especially in our community colleges on adjunct faculty have maybe created some more persistent problems around staffing up to be able to meet the new student needs?
PAGE - Yeah. This is a dire problem we've had for many years, and this is the product of, unfortunately, underfunding or declining funding over many years, which is and if I'm being sympathetic to our college administrators, they say, well, I have a fixed budget, but I've got all these students in classes, so I'm gonna hire cheap labor that has no low pay, no job security, no retirement benefits, and no health care. These are gig workers in higher ed, and I'm not sure everyone realizes that it spans all of our campuses, but in our community colleges especially, it can be that 70 or 80% of classes are taught by the higher ed gig workers. They are outstanding, but they are being mistreated. And we've been talking about this for many, many years, about having pay parity across the system, about having basic access to retirement benefits or health insurance, and that needs to happen, especially now that we are.
I'm so thrilled that we've used fair share funds. You all have allocated those towards a goal that I have long had.17480 Obviously, rep Higgins has worked17482 on this for decades to achieve debt-free public higher education, and people17486 are responding. Young people are through the early17488 early college programs or through going directly into our 2 year and17492 4 year colleges. They are showing up.17494 We have 53% of the state has a higher educate has a higher degree, which is fantastic. It's the best in the best in the country, and I can do that math. I'm not great at math, but I can do that. That means almost half do not have a degree, and they might have wanted 1 or might want 1 now. But we can't say, here, come into our campuses. Oh, but we're gonna use exploited adjuncts who are teaching 5, 10 courses just to make a very bare minimum of pay. So I do think that we have to look at the, I'll call it, the quality side, the educator side, faculty and staff side of the equation, and this adjunct issue is 1 of the most glaring.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you so much. And, senator Kennedy.
KENNEDY- Thank you so much, madam chair. And I wanna say thank you for the discussion today about early college. Proud to say that in the city of Worcester, we have 2 of our institutions participating, and every 1 of our high school students is able to participate. So, we're certainly strong champions out in Worcester of the program. But my question. I really wanna follow up on the comments that you were making, Max. And, if you can provide a little more detail, I think, you know, thinking specifically about some of the financial implications that are going to fall upon the state of Massachusetts, to to to fulfill, particularly with the president's executive order dismantling the Department of Education. And if you can put in real terms for us, I think it's important of of what that means, financially, particularly, where your educators are supported, by regional offices at the department, by other kind of support measures that may not exist currently or is a pass through for the Commonwealth that, we might be asked in the coming years to be supplementing, when that funding, goes away.
PAGE - So, I mean, I want to say that I will not accept it as inevitable. In other words, this is the fight that is on for all of us, and we have to support our congressional delegation, do everything we can to prevent that. The dismantling, it has allegedly will not include cuts. That is fall, I mean, that's utterly false, and there's already proposals around how to redirect money away from public schools to voucher programs. And we know there is this broader effort to give away $4,500,000,000,000 in tax cuts over the next 10 years. So expect major, major cuts. But, obviously, that's our that's our goal is to push back against those. But I think the Healy administration has rightly estimated it could be up to $2,000,000,000.
Because remember, the biggest part of the Department of Education is actually the biggest line in there is the scholarship programs, the Pell grants and others that are absolutely essential to allowing young people to go on to college. But then there are, $500,000,000, I know, of direct funding to our public schools via the Department of Education. And this, of course, is not even counting all the other things you were alluding to. The office of civil rights gutted the research division that has been the kind of17671 the glue that has looked at best practices around the country. So those are not immediate cuts to us, but they are devastating in their17679 impact. So these are this is significant, significant money, and, obviously, we're not even talking about what they plan to do to Medicaid. So but but I get back to this point, which is that we cannot solve all problems, but we, unlike many states, have enormous capacity.
SPEAKER2 - That's enough.
SPEAKER4 - I'll ask 1, 0, did you have 1? 0, representative Pease.
PEASE- Thank you. I appreciate 1 of the early education. It's really wonderful in Westfield, and they're using it, and it's a great program. I do not appreciate you coming here and being so partisan. That is not acceptable. You are speculating. You are making conjecture that you don't know what's gonna happen. And I think you need to take a little pause in the things you say in a public hearing. Thank you.
PAGE - Project 20 25 lays out the game plan that has been happening across the government. So it's better for us to be prepared.
COMERFORD - Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you, representative. I wanted to go back to the fair share hearing that's going to be happening on April 3, I believe, you know, for the surplus in fiscal year 24. So as we think about the cuts to research, as we think about the opportunities in early college, as we think about Pell grants and title 1, you know, concerns, if you could, weigh in on what you might ask us to do now that we know what we know, what would you do? How would you spend this surplus?
PAGE - How would we spend the surplus? So, I mean, we have a series of proposals about how to spend that, and then I will just again note how remarkable it is. Legislature was appropriately cautious spending $1,000,000,000 and $1,300,000,000, and we have exceeded that17813 by about a billion dollars in the first17815 year. And I expect that again to happen17817 this coming year. So we have a17819 series of proposals. Professor Liberatori just mentioned a $200,000,000 piece of that should go to shoring up public higher education, should those cuts come down. But also, a core issue is addressing the staff and faculty wage issues. So that is on the public higher ed side, and that we've documented and we can share, and through that commission that was, Commissioner Ortega alluded to, the Higher Ed Commission, and we've talked through the wage inequities. And then, on the K12 side, we have a series of proposals.
I'll just highlight some of the biggest. 1 1 would be, the hundred $50,000,000 to fix the circuit breaker, at least temporarily, so we'd get to a final, a much better fix, as well as, we have a proposal for a hundred $23,000,000 to implement a grant program to address the mental health, and fiscal crisis in our public schools. So that's a crucial issue. Our members are talking about it all the time. The challenges our students face, which sometimes turn into violence, behavioral issues, have directly affected the health and welfare of our members. So those are some of the larger things. We also see there's a lot of talk about early ed and childcare, which, of course, is a crucial issue. We really think we propose $50,000,000 of that surplus to go into funding more of the excellent programs that are in public schools or that are publicly run through municipalities as opposed to simply subsidizing private early and childcare programs.
COMERFORD - Thank you very much. I don't see any other questions. I'll thank the panel so much for your service, and I think that's it. That concludes. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you. Thank you.
COMERFORD - The next up, we have president Martie Meehan, president of the University of Massachusetts, and we have Felicity Olivera, a member of a stew. She's a student trustee for UMass.
SPEAKER 2 - I'm with you, man.
SPEAKER21 - Thank you.
SPEAKER22 - Jared,
SPEAKER4 - this is it. Yeah.
COMERFORD - And as we get started, I think it should be said, President Meehan, that17962 this is spring break. So the fact that, Felicity, you are here is, you know, we've heard you are an absolute rock star in the world. Yeah. But the fact that you're on spring break and testifying before the joint committee on ways and means, I think, is a miracle. So thank you very much, Mister President and Felicity, for being here.
SPEAKER3 - Felicity is a rock star, too.
SPEAKER21 - This is the truth.
MARTY MEEHAN - UMASS SYSTEM - Good afternoon, Chair Comerford, Chair Duffy, and members of the Joint Ways and Means Committee. Thank you very much for inviting me today to speak with you and also for your continuing support for the University of Massachusetts. I am grateful to be joined today by UMass Amherst student trustee Felicity Olivera. Felicity is a senior at the Isenberg School of Management. She's from Brockton, and through her years on the campus working in financial aid, she has developed firsthand experience with how we can better support the needs of our students, particularly financial needs. Felicity epitomizes what a UMass student is all about. She's smart, she works hard, she's tough, and she perseveres. She's, like many of us who have graduated from 1 of our campuses, she's a first-generation college grad. I know that when she gets an opportunity to speak to all of you, you will be just as impressed with her testimony when you hear it as we all are at UMass.
Now, despite the disruptions of18050 the last several months, we remain18052 focused on our mission to provide affordable, accessible, high-quality education, including18058 conducting groundbreaking research and supporting the Commonwealth through economic development and service. In this year's US News and World Report rankings, UMass Amherst ranked 20 sixth among public universities in the United States and 50th among all national universities in the country. It's the highest ranking ever. We continue to receive national awards for the strength of our financial and operational management. Last fall, our campuses launched initiatives covering tuition and fees for in state undergraduate students from households earning $75,000 a year or less, which was made possible through a combination of our record $4.00 $9,000,000 in UMass funded financial aid, and by all of you and the governor and the Mass Grant Plus expansion program.
We also celebrated the18116 UMass Chan Medical School researcher, Victor Ambros, who now shares a 2,004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co18126 discovery of microRNA, And UMass Amherst Professor Emeritus, Andrew G. Bartle, has been awarded the 02/2004 Association for Computing Machinery AM Turning Award, often noted and referred to as the Nobel Prize of Computing. The funding environment presents real and significant uncertainty for the University of Massachusetts. In February, the National Institute of Health abruptly attempted to cut critically important research funding by arbitrarily slashing what used to be known as indirect costs. That's a mistake to call it indirect core cost because these real costs are for facilities and administration. If implemented, these cuts would jeopardize critical research and development done by our faculty and students, negatively impacting public health and the state's economy. The magnitude of these potential losses would significantly impact the University of Massachusetts and many other institutions in Massachusetts, threatening our global leadership in scientific research and the life sciences.
UMass receives $961,000,000 in federal funding each year. That includes $285,000,000 from NIH funding last year, including more than $92,000,000 to support these FNA costs essential for high-caliber research. $423,000,000 in student financial aid. $64,000,000 from the National Science Foundation, and 89,000,000 from other federal sources like the18239 DOE, the DOD, USDA, and many other federal agencies. There are18245 nearly 10,000 employees at the University of Massachusetts whose salaries are at least partially supported by federal funding. The disruption in higher education is so significant that Moody's issued an advisory last week, downgrading the outlook of the entire sector of higher education from stable to negative. As a result, we are planning on using existing tools and governance, and many of our campuses are proactively implementing responsible cost control measures. In order to address federal cuts and to continue supporting our students and faculty and staff, we must be more aggressive about revenue from other sources, which makes our fiscal 26 state appropriation critical to the university, in addition to our other sources, like tuition.
In the university's fiscal 26 budget request, we are seeking 877,000,000 for fiscal 26, a $44,000,000 or 5% increase. Now, this figure18312 includes the state share of the fiscal 25 and fiscal18316 26 collective bargaining costs, which are driven by parameters18320 that are established by the executive office of administration and Finance. In other words, we don't decide what the cost of living increase is going to be. In addition to the state share of these expenses, UMass is required to fund more than half of these obligations ourselves. So it's important to realize then that there's a cost of living increase that comes from the parameters from A and F. Unlike some of the other public institutions, UMass has to pay almost 60% of those costs. Now, we are also grateful to the legislature and the governor for establishing the Higher Education Capital Working Group in last year's budget, which ultimately led to Governor Healy's BRIGHT Act proposal. This transformation, transformational legislation would tap $125,000,000 in fair share surtax revenues annually and unlock appropriately 1,250,000,000 in capital funding for UMass over the next decade.
The impact of this investment on the university cannot be overstated and would represent the largest investment in infrastructure of our public university, research university, in decades. All of us, me, our chancellors, all of you, we're stewards of this great institution, and we can't be just concerned about what's going to happen next year or the next year. It's our responsibility to be concerned about what happens in 10 years, in 25 years, in 50 years, and, yes, even a hundred years. So it's really important, this investment on our our facilities, which literally are falling apart. Now I'd like to thank you very much for all of your attention. We look forward to working with you closely on this committee, with Senate President Spilker, Speaker Mariano, and the entire legislature on our budget request, and we thank you for the partnership that we've had over the years. There has been a great partnership between the legislature, the governor, and UMass that has made us a strong university. With that, I'd like to turn it over to Felicity.
FELICITY OLIVEIRA - UMASS STUDENT TRUSTEE - Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for having me. I hope everyone's having a good week. My name is Felicity Olivera, and I'm a senior marketing major at the Isenberg School of Management. I'm originally from Brockton, Massachusetts, and I'm honored to serve as a student trustee for UMass Amherst. As a first-generation college student, growing up in a low-income community shaped my perspective in ways I carry with me every day. I came to UMass Amherst drawn by the incredible resources it offers students like me. What I didn't expect was just how much this university would transform my life, not only academically but personally. Over my 4 years here, UMass has empowered me with the knowledge I've been able to bring back to my community. However, my journey has also been shaped by significant financial struggles, which I know many students across our system face. Today, I wanna take a moment with all of you to share what it's like to navigate UMass Amherst as a low-income student.
I know the state might not witness up close the student experiences we face, so I wanna bring to your attention some issues that we as students navigate and have to work through. 1 of the most impactful experiences I've had at UMass was during my sophomore year when I studied abroad in Barcelona. This18523 life-changing opportunity was made possible through18525 a generous scholarship sponsored by UMass Amherst. It was the kind of opportunity18529 I never imagined would be available to someone like me. Experiencing a new culture, seeing Europe for the first time, it just gave me a sense of possibility. I've seen the world in a different way. But returning to Amherst the following year brought me back to the stark realities many students like me face. With the low housing priority number, I struggled to secure on-campus housing, and I couldn't afford the rising cost of off-campus options. As a low-income student, the situation felt incredibly overwhelming. Without clear financial aid information for the upcoming year, I was left unprepared and honestly uncertain, if you want me to be frank with you guys.
Desperate for help, I worked with disability services to secure a letter stating that living on campus was essential for my health. While I was eventually accommodated, I didn't receive my dorm assignment until 2 weeks before the semester began. At this point, it was August, and my financial aid package still hadn't been finalized. This left me scrambling to make financial aid decisions while being completely blindsided on essentials like books, meal plans, and just things that weighed heavily on my academics. Unfortunately, this wasn't an isolated experience. This year, delays in the FAFSA compounded the issue. Financial aid packages weren't finalized until October of 2024. Yes. This October, midway through school. Many students, including myself, were still receiving refund distributions and adjustments to packages as classes were already in full swing.
At UMass Amherst, nearly 7 nearly 47% of students rely on financial aid to cover critical expenses. Yet, without financial aid packages for returning students, many of us are left18624 navigating those decisions in the dark. And that brings me to why I'm here today. While UMass Amherst has18630 provided me with the support I need, the broader issue18632 lies at the state and federal levels in distributing financial aid. If state financial funding were allocated earlier, students would have the financial clarity and flexibility for essentials like housing, meal plans, and other necessary expenses. This challenge extends beyond me, UMass.
It's a reality for students across Commonwealth Massachusetts. As18651 a student trustee, I believe adjusting these delays would make a meaningful difference. Expanding and stabilizing mass grant funding, as well as aligning state aid disbursement with university billing timelines, would help ensure that students aren't left making these financial decisions last minute, particularly at the start of each semester. A more predictable, timely financial aid process would reaffirm Massachusetts's commitment to acts to accessible, high-quality public education. I share my experience with you guys today because financial instability should never be a barrier to higher education. Yet, for many students like me, it determines where we live, what we eat, and even whether we continue our studies. These aren't just administrative hurdles. They shape our futures. I appreciate the efforts already being made to support students, and I hope we can continue working together to make financial aid more predictable and accessible. I thank you guys for your time, and I look forward to your questions. Thank you.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much, Felicity. It is18707 so important to have your perspective. It is vital to us. Thank you. And Mister President, thank you. I don't think it's lost18715 on any of us how much UMass did to meet the financial aid challenge. I believe the governor and the legislature, you know, co-created with the university and the state colleges and the community colleges and, you know, we saw it and applaud you for leading UMass's efforts. It's beautiful. The institution itself is beautiful, and then the way you're trying to break down barriers for everyone, including stars like Felicity, is really important. We know we have a long way to go, but it's wonderful to see the partnership with UMass.
MEEHAN - Madam Chair, I would say that in my tenure as president of the university, we have increased by 73% the amount of money we put into it. But the state has partnered beautifully with us, and we thank you for that partnership.
COMERFORD - It's good. It's working. I'll call first on Senator Paiano, please.
PAYANO - Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Trustee Olivera and President Meehan, who is my former congressman. There you go. Thank you for both coming up and representing UMass. My question, 1 of the things that I appreciate that that UMass announced is, you know, making sure that, tuition fees, free tuition fees for folks, I think, was under $75,000, which I which I think it's it's great. And I am hoping to see more universities across the country take those steps. My question is around what type of outreach are we doing to ensure that universities like UMass are, you know, folks from urban settings like Springfield, Brockton, and Fall River, see an opportunity to to be able to attend a university like ours?
MEEHAN - Well, all of our campuses, which you know18829 are spread out across the18831 state, go into high schools18835 throughout the state. We also have, all 4 of our undergraduate campuses have, programs in education. We're training teachers. We have18844 master's programs. We collaborate18846 with all of the school departments, particularly those in gateway cities, and we do that pretty aggressively. What I would say to you, and I heard the panelists before talking about early college, and I would tell you that another thing we need to expand and do better at is early college. I'm18862 a big believer in early college and probably because of my own background. I graduated from Lowell High School, and I graduated with a lot of folks who didn't think college was possible for them. They didn't have the opportunity to think about, well, could I really do college work?
Or they didn't have the opportunity to think about, well, boy, could I afford college, and how could I afford it? I think early college is going to give a great opportunity to get into every area of the state, rural areas of the state, but also urban areas of the state. So all of these things put together. But 1 of the reasons, Senator, that we offered18897 this $75,000 and below was because we think18901 it's important to let people know that the sticker price at UMass is not necessarily what you have to pay. So part of our message is, you can come to UMass, and it doesn't mean you're going to have to pay the sticker price. We've been aggressive, as the chair mentioned. We put a lot more money into financial aid. We're going to continue to do that. Hopefully, we'll do that with a partnership. I'm hoping that we could go from 75,000, maybe get ourselves up to 100,000 at some point. So those are some of the things that we do, but it's in my core. I worry about that because that's where I come from. Too many really smart young people whose parents didn't have the opportunity to go to college; they need to know that they can get there.
PAYANO - Thank you, madam chair. Just to follow up. No. And thank you for that. Because I think 1 of the biggest fears I have is our students that go to UMass, coming from sort of a middle-class background, and end up paying close to, you know, the full price. You know, I met 1 student that was going to was graduating to be a teacher, and he told me that he was gonna owe close to $60,000 in loans. And I found that you know, I remember going to UMass and thinking it was expensive back then, and now, you know, the costs have gone up. So I think any work that we can do to ensure that folks that that school or university are a little bit more affordable is good. My second question is around what a university is doing to ensure that the folks that are graduating are essentially getting the skills they need to be able to obtain a job. So they're not just getting a degree, but they're coming out with some, you know, some connection to what their job is gonna be after college.
MEEHAN- On the first part of your, comment, I would say that, as a student at I attended the University of19033 Massachusetts Lowell, but when I was a19035 student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, I could actually work on weekends in summer and afford to pay all of the education. And so what19043 concerns me most is you can't do that today. And as I examine the cost of a UMass education, if you factor in inflation, which is a reasonable thing to do, the cost of a UMass education actually has stayed about the same or slightly gone down. What has shifted is when I was a student, not that long ago, but when I was a student, the state paid 85% of the budget at UMass Lowell. Today, the state pays about 23.204 percent of the overall UMass budget. So what has really happened is it shifted. Who pays for UMass education has shifted from the Commonwealth to students and their families. We're going to continue to work as hard as we can with you to find ways that we. I don't necessarily think the sticker price is too high. I think the problem is that we need to get more financial aid. Now, to your second part of your question, which is really, really important, we want to educate folks to get jobs. I look at the data from the Isenberg School, for example. And we keep data. 1 of the things you need to do is keep data on all your programs and constantly be looking at them.
But I look and see the graduates of the Isenberg, they either get a job or they go in to get an advanced degree, sometimes an MBA. If you look at our nursing programs across the system, our programs in computer science across the system, our folks that are in all kinds of tech fields. We have really good numbers in terms of people that are graduating and getting jobs. We keep track of it. We keep track of return on investment. And when we're looking, I mentioned national rankings earlier. What we do is when we submit to the folks that that independently ranked universities, we give them the data on how much a person makes when they graduate from UMass when they first graduate, what they make at mid career. So it's something we follow closely. In some instances, it's going to depend upon the program that a student picks and an area of study. Our engineers all get jobs. We don't produce enough engineers, and we need to get more. So it is something19172 we focus on constantly,19174 and it's important. And I'm proud that the general return on investments in the national rankings is very high. Thank you. Thank you.
COMERFORD- Thank you so much. Assistant vice chair Diggs, please.
DIGGS - Thank you. President Meehan, nice to see you. Felicity, thank you for your19194 continued success in what you're doing. Proactive you guys both said that. You know, being proactive is19201 so much so important. And the statute, you know, you sticking to it and believing in yourself was so important. And, you know, not worrying about, you know, I think we need to also make sure we take care of, let's say, you or others in your position because, of course, being proactive, you were trying to be proactive but you happen to be reactional at times finding out blatant in the game which is very dangerous, you know, which is not what we should be doing for our children or, you know, our future leaders. We're supposed to be prepping you, getting you ready for this, and for you to still have that stick to itiveness, I appreciate. So I just wanna say thank you and kudos.
OLIVEIRA - Thank you. It's a miracle. Yeah.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you. Senator Kennedy and then Representative Pease.
KENNEDY- Thank you, Madam Chair and President Meehan and, certainly, Felicity again, I echo. Thank you for bringing your voice to the table. And I appreciate the focus and conversation we're having around the need to make sure that we're making and keeping college affordable. I do I have the privilege of having UMass19277 Chan Medical School in my district, and we recently had a legislative briefing with Chancellor Collins. and I wanna talk a little bit about the NIH funding. Certainly, you know, significant cuts that they've already seen impacted this year so far, and the impact that will have on research. I believe the numbers were 5 95 clinical trials over 12,000 patients that are impacted in those trials currently that are on the line. My question specifically is, I know Umash Chan recently announced that they were, having putting some hiring freezes and planning for some potential layoffs underway because of the cuts that they've already received or grants that have not come to fruition that they were granted but are not being allocated. Have you seen at the other campuses any types of freezes or cuts that have already been made? And again, I ask that from a. I don't foresee the state's ability to ever replace that funding. But speaking of the other campuses where there might be, requests at some point in this fiscal year, based on, again, not to project, but if there are actual layoffs or planned freezes that are in place.
MEEHAN - Yeah. Umass Lowell just did a communication to, to that campus Dartmouth. Umass Dartmouth is also in that position. UMass Amherst does about $50,000,000 with them. NIH funding that will be impacted. We don't know the full extent of federal cuts. It's 1 of those things where we need to prepare for it, but we don't know with absolute certainty what's going to happen. But 1 of the things we don't want to do is hang around and not make cuts or not begin to figure out how we're going to deal with this. We went through that with COVID-19, and we made swift decisions during COVID-19. In some instances, we laid off19391 people who, for example, worked in the residence halls, and we had to do it because we had19397 given back all the revenue from that. So it is something we're monitoring closely. We have very high rankings from groups like S and P and Moody's, and we do it because we run the university in a fiscally competent and prudent way. So, yes, all the campuses are looking at this. We don't have all the information because we don't know what cuts19420 will come to fruition or not. In some instances,19422 courts have said no. You can't cut19426 that yet. We obviously have agreements with NIH in terms19430 of things like facilities. UMass Chan, as you know, senator, just built a $350,000,000 world-class research building. Well, that was built on reliance of the fact that they do a lot of research with the federal government, where the federal government has19447 in advance agreed will pay facilities costs for these. So this19451 is an ongoing situation that we are in. You know, Chancellor Con wants to make sure that all of19457 all of you are up to date on it, and it's something19460 we're gonna continue to monitor. But I can tell you every day, we're looking at things and trying to figure out how we can manage through this.
COMERFORD - Thank you, Senator. We have representative Pease and then representative Kilcoyne.
PEASE- Alright. Thank you, Mister President. Miss Olivera, appreciate your testimony and, again, best of luck to you. Now you said that you have19484 a great bond rating. I see that you mentioned it, but you said that all the universities across the board took a break because of the uncertainty, which we're all running through. You've got yeah.
MEEHAN - Representative, that was an outlook. In other words, they haven't changed the board ratings yet. It's kind of an outlook.
PEASE - Alright. That's my question whether it impacts you right now, but not yet. It's just they're all like the rest of us waiting to see what happens, and we don't know. Exactly.
MEEHAN - Yeah. It was an outlook where they're cautioning, in the industry across the board. And I would also say, you know, in addition to managing to Senator Kennedy's question, I'm part of a national organization called the Association of Public Land Grant Universities. We are working with other presidents from other parts of the country. In every state, research is important. So part of what we need to do is organize nationally so that we can get all of our private and public universities to do this kind of research to mobilize and make sure that we do everything we can to have our voices heard in Washington. I can tell you, I've spent a lot of time in Washington. I have a lot of former colleagues, both Republican and Democratic, that we're working. So we're working hard on this from every aspect of it. But, yeah, that was an outlook, so it doesn't affect us financially yet. And we are talking to Moody's about it, too.
SPEAKER 4 - Thank you, Representative Pease. Representative Kilcoyne.
SPEAKER25 - Oh, come on.
KILCOYNE - Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, President Meehan, and Felicity for Felicity for being here today, especially during your spring break. It's so important for you to come here and educate us on some of the funding needs. And I just wanted to make a comment and echo some of the observations that Senator Kennedy made. I, too, was at that same briefing. And I know that it's difficult for you to look out, to try to project what exactly is going to happen. I know in Central Massachusetts, you know, representing a district just north of Worcester, we certainly are very, very concerned about the possibilities of some of the serious NIH cuts and how that might be impacted, not just by the school, but by the region. We know there's been a hiring freeze that's been reported at least in the local Telegram at Worcester Telegram or the local paper. And I know that there's been a freeze on PhD acceptance. So, I just, you know, I guess this is more of an echo of a concern than a question, but please, please, please make sure that you're communicating to us exactly what is happening on the ground there.
The people at UMass, you know, the chancellor at UMass Chan has been doing an excellent job, I think, educating the local delegation. But the impacts of this are going to be felt far beyond education. It's impacting medical research. I know that prior to the new administration coming in, I've had meetings about, funding in the state budget that would have led to additional research grants that were going towards mental health treatments that were actively being used by people at UMass and in Central Mass Massachusetts on things like student mental health, youth mental health, and all of that is up in the air now. So, just, you know, this is going to mean more than, just I cannot emphasize enough how worried I am, and how worried I think everybody is. And I applaud you for the work that you have ahead of you of educating our future doctors and nurses, and not just in the medical school, but across the board. I know of the form from law students to the undergrad students. So, anything that we can do to be helpful, and I think all of us know the limitations there, but even at the very least, making sure that we are up to date with as much information as possible in these very unique times.
MEEHAN - Representative, I would tell you that there's nothing that bothers a medical school more than having to say, we have to put a hold on a PhD program. Trust me, they don't wanna do that. Yeah. The problem is PhD programs cost money. And if we're not going to get some help from the federal government in our PhD programs, then we can't afford to. As I mentioned earlier in my comments, we're stewards, and we will keep you informed. I thought it was great that Chancellor Collins reached out. You know, there are states. Massachusetts has been a center for federal research dollars, and I think in some other parts of the country, states have stepped up long ago to play a role in research. The challenge is, this is kind of all of a sudden. So it's not like the state could say, hey, wait a minute. We can come in and play that role. We met with the governor, lieutenant governor, the presidents of Harvard and MIT and the Tufts and UMass and our chancellors. We had a great meeting, but it's unrealistic to think that a state could come in and make these kinds of cuts. But we're we will, first of all, we'll be transparent. Second, we will keep the dialogue going.
KILCOYNE - Thank you very much. And I just wanna point out, too, that some of this research, I know that was going on, it served not just people of the Commonwealth but all across the country as well. So we certainly appreciate that these are problems that extend far beyond Central Massachusetts, although we are very grateful for the presence that you have in Central Mass and Worcester, and just how difficult, you know,19808 all all of our jobs are ahead. So thank you very much for your words.
MEEHAN - It's highly unusual, representative, to have a medical school that hasn't really been around that long to have 2 Nobel Prize19818 winners. It's an extraordinary medical19820 school as as you you know.
KILCOYNE - Thank you, and thank you, Madam Chair.
SPEAKER4 - Thanks, Rip. Cool coin. Important. Representative Holmes.
HOLMES - Mister President, how are you today?
MEEHAN - I'm doing great. Good to see you, representative.
HOLMES - 2 things. 1 is UMass, of course, has, and Chan has MassBiologics in my district. And we have gone from, I think, about 240 employees, 230 employees down to maybe 40. And, so we've been with the challenges around, the technology and all of the, things that used to be produced there. It was the gym with these 2 big beautiful buildings in the heart of my district. We're thinking it's gonna be just such a cornerstone and anchor. And so, my question is, any sense of what will19887 go back into those 2 buildings? I know it has been just a struggle to find an FDA-approved vendor to go into the building. But when we spent millions and millions and millions of dollars in the heart of Mattapan
MEEHAN- Yes.
HOLMES- With what we thought was gonna be a great employer. My advocacy there is to just, say, we need something there. I just don't think we need to just let this thing dwindle to 0. And then my second question is about UMass Boston itself. It's still believe UMass Boston has half of all black students in the whole UMass system. And so, for a school that serves so many people of color and obviously that region, the region I represent, I'm still concerned about the garage. And you know, the fight that happened between, you know,19950 Keith Motley getting terminated, all the other stuff.
MEEHAN - Keith Motley is,
19956 HOLMES19956 -19956 Yes.19956 Yes. I know his name. Yeah. He still is. Yeah.
MEEHAN - I mean, and by the way, he's doing a great job on the campus.
HOLMES - I definitely thought he was doing a great job as chancellor too, but that's that was gone. But, the question
MEEHAN - He did an excellent job as chancellor. As a matter of fact, we named a building for him and his wife, Angie, and we had a great, I don't know if you were there, but it was a great school.
HOLMES - I was. But my question is, some of the challenge there was who's19981 gonna hold the responsibility?19983 Is it gonna? It's still just UMass Boston, and is that still totally in their book, or is it going to be the responsibility of doing the repair? Is that gonna go across the system, or is it just gonna be still just on UMass Boston?
MEEHAN - No. Anything that happens on a campus, the cost of it stays on the campus. Asking the students at UMass Amherst to pay for projects at UMass Boston or asking the students at UMass Lowell to pay for a project at Amherst20014 it's not really the20016 way it works. But what we were able to do at UMass Boston is we were able to put out a proposal for a development there, on a possible land that the university paid $18,000,000. We now have $31,000,000 from a developer. So what we are looking to do is leverage the asset that we have in the real estate theater to pay for the expenses that are related to the garage at Boston. I will tell you that I think Boston has really turned the corner financially. They are in a stronger position. The economy has been very, very difficult. It was difficult for the developer to get all the permits that it needed to make that20059 project work.
But once that project passes, that is a project that is going to create 200,000,000 dollars20067 worth20067 of revenue. And by the way, I made the unilateral decision with my board of trustees that UMass Boston would get all of that revenue, dollars 200,000,000 worth. So I think it's been a challenging time to finish that development, but once it's finished, UMass Boston will get all of it back that they put into construction and more. Now, on20088 the issue of mass biologics, that's a very active discussion right20092 now. As you know, that's driven by, you know, what vaccines are being created, what the market is for, for those vaccines and for other products. We will make sure that the medical school has a dialogue with you so that you know a little bit about what the discussions are in terms of what happens at Mass Doc Biologics. But that is a very important those buildings are important. We still have a lot of work being done on those buildings now. There aren't as many people there, but we think there's a lot of potential to find someone to come in and create the type of economic opportunity that I think you would want and all of us would want.
SPEAKER5 - Thank you.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much, Representative Holmes. This concludes the questions that we have queued up. Trustee Oliveira and President Meehan, thank you so much for your service and for time today, and thank you for the materials.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you very much, madam chair. Thank you.
SPEAKER24 - Thank Thank you for
SPEAKER20 - having us.
SPEAKER24 - Thank you.
COMERFORD - Next up, we have Nate McKinnon, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges. And for the edification of our members here, I'm gonna ask for no follow-ups to your questions. If you can get to the question quickly, that will be helpful. And just so we know, we have 4 panels left today. I know we can do it. So welcome, Nate. Thank you for being here.
NATE MCKINNON - MASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES- Thank you very much, madam chair, and and, thank you, chair Comerford and chair Duffy, and through you, thank you to all of the members, of the joint committee for the opportunity to speak today about the f y 26 budget priorities for the community colleges. My name is Nate McKinnon, and I'm the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges. On behalf of our 15 community colleges, we are grateful for your incredible support of our institutions. Because of the historic investments made by you and your colleagues in the legislature, as well as by the Haley Driscoll administration, the last 2 years have been transformational for the community colleges and our students. Since the inception of free community college, every single 1 of the 15 community colleges across the Commonwealth has experienced growth in their enrollment. Compared20236 to the fall of 2022, before Mass Reconnect or Mass Educate, overall community college20242 enrollment this past fall increased by 23.9%, and it is up 40.5% amongst new students at our institutions. From last spring to this spring semester, we've seen a nearly 18 growth in just 1 year. Free Community College is working, and we expect that success to continue. We are thrilled that house 1 continues to support these programs, strongly believe that our increasing enrollment requires additional investments above level funding to ensure long-term sustainable success. And let me pause here just to say this. Thank you.
Thank you to you on behalf of not only all of our students, faculty, and staff, but on behalf of the residents of the Commonwealth who are not yet in college, but because of the investments you've made, someday know that they will be able to do so at no cost out of pocket. To that end, we are seeking a 3% increase in the 2 free community college line items, which is a modest boost that we believe will sufficiently cover the increase in student costs based on enrollment trends. Additionally, while free community college provides a pathway for many of our residents, there is still a crucial demographic of students20321 that are being left behind. Short-term workforce development training programs, which are defined as programs that are less20329 than 600 clock hours in length,20331 are not currently eligible for federal or state financial aid, and therefore, students who are participating in those programs cannot participate in free community college.
So what that means is if a student comes to 1 of our institutions and says, I want to be a nurse, we can tell them, congratulations, no problem, we got you, let's put you in our nursing program. But if they say to us, I want to be a nurse, but I want to start as a CNA in that training program so I can work in the field or EMT. We have to charge them fully out of pocket for that program because we have no funding source to support it because of the federal rules and financial aid. This has become a major barrier for students, students who, by the way, tend to be amongst our lowest income, and often students of color. We're asking you to consider funding for short-term workforce programs as the next iteration of free community college for FY 26. An investment of $10,000,000 would allow us to train approximately 2,000 students per year in high-demand, short-term workforce training programs.
While community college free community college is bringing thousands of students to our schools, reversing a decade of enrollment decline, it is important that we also have the resources to support them. To support students academically and to ensure they're more likely to complete their program, the Success Fund, which you heard about earlier today from the secretary and commissioner, provides wrap-around support like career, academic, and financial advising through success coaches. We have an 11 percentage point advantage in our 3-year outcomes for our first-time, full-time success participants who enrolled and engaged with the initiative in fall 2021 versus their like peers who did not. The program is working. These successes, however, can only be maintained if students are given that individualized support. 80% of the success line item is used to pay for personnel to ensure students have access to mentorship and coaching that we know helps them thrive. But as our enrollment has increased, this line has remained steady.
So we are asking this line be increased to $21,000,000 this year so we can ensure more students attending our schools earn their degrees. Free community college is our access strategy. Success is our completion strategy. Free community college and success address financial and academic access and20479 academic supports, but for our20481 colleges to appropriately meet student needs, there are 2 key additional areas of investment that we want to urge you to consider that I'll mention briefly: capital improvements and faculty and staff compensation. On the capital side, the community colleges are fully supportive of the Healy Driscoll administration's BRIGHT Act to ensure our students are learning in state-of-the-art labs and classrooms to prepare them for the 20 first century careers they seek. Our community colleges educate nearly half of the undergraduate students in public higher education across the state, but we do not have the resources or access to capital that our colleagues do.
We're confident that the BRIGHT Act,20516 particularly if equalized by segment, would offer much-needed funding in this area. And while our colleges are celebrating recent successes, we continue to struggle to recruit and retain high-quality faculty and staff to teach and support these students due to the low base compensation. The average community college professor in Massachusetts makes 33% less than their counterpart at a 4-year public institution in the state. With a master's degree, a faculty member at a community college will make around $56,000 starting off, according to our current contract. 56,000. Most of our faculty members can make far more working in any K-12 school district near their community college than they can being a faculty member at 1 of our institutions. A salary classification20562 study, last done in 1999, is urgently needed to examine the salaries at community colleges and determine how to bring them in line with those of other sectors, not only within our20572 state, but with our peer benchmark states as20574 well. Again, we're immensely grateful to you, your legislative colleagues in the administration for your support of community colleges, especially during such an uncertain time. We'll submit our full list of FY '26 priorities in writing, as well as along with our testimony, and20588 would welcome any discussion or questions around them. Thank you for your time, and look forward to another year of collaboration support for the20594 Massachusetts community colleges.
COMERFORD - Thank you, Nate so much, Nate, and thank you to your team that's here, and thanks for your patience.
SPEAKER27 - Thank you.
SPEAKER4 - We have a question for from, chair Duffy.
DUFFY- Hello. Wonderful to see you. Always great to talk with you about community colleges. So I wanna thank you for really lifting the resources and tools you're suggesting to help us make sure that Mass Educate is actually gonna be successful. You know, we have to have these wrap-around services. And so I'm just interested in any thoughts you have of how either your organization, we, as the legislature, can work together. How do you have thoughts on how we can track how the, you know, success or challenges that students might be facing and, you know, so we can address this as it's rolling out and keep it successful?
MACKINNON- Thank you, Madam Chair, for the question. You know our, 1 of the things that's particularly interesting about free community college is that it came on very quickly with very little time to ramp it up, and we very much duct taped the wings while we were pushing, getting ready to take off. And so, you know, 1 of our biggest challenges remains in capacity at the institutional level, and success is a big part of that, as is just faculty and staff compensation. A common misperception is that the community colleges got a lot of extra money last year, or this current fiscal year, to just help them with everything, and that's not true. The money we got supplanted what we would have otherwise taken from students as fee revenue. Right? So we just switched to paid. And so, having that without additional capacity funding has been a challenge.
I would say that the success program is our best metric20706 for being able to track how we're doing wraparound supports and20710 whether or not students have what they need to get from first setting foot into our institutions to degree. Another thing that we're actually working on right now is, exploring, with, the Federal Reserve Bank, alternative measures for measuring community college success versus IPEDS, in that the IPEDS measure only looks at first time, full time students. 2 thirds of our students attend part time at the community colleges, not because they want to, because they work, and have other life commitments. So we are looking at how we measure their overall success because many of our students who come to us never intended to get an associate's degree. They intended to get credits to transfer to a beautiful institution like UMass Amherst or 1 of our great state universities or another partner. They may have intended just to get a short-term credential. And so we're looking at how we measure that differently and would be delighted to partner on that as well.
DUFFY - Looking forward to it. Thank you.
COMERFORD - Thank you. I don't see any other questions.
SULLIVAN-ALMEIDA - Madam, madam chair, I apologize. I did not text over that I had a question. I apologize.
COMERFORD - Oh, no. I'm delighted. Please, representative.
20782 SULLIVAN-ALMEIDA20782 -20782 Thank20782 you for your testimony. I know it's a little late in20784 the day. We're all ready to kinda stretch our20786 legs a little bit, but I was able to attend a legislative kinda meeting in Brockton at Massasoit, and there were several different issues that we saw. And 1 of the many different issues, I should say, if you don't mind, world 2, was the staffing. And like you said, you talk about the salary, and I heard from 3 different young students who talked about the faculty that really impacted their lives and allowed them to pursue a career in college. Right? In20819 a pathway to a 4 year degree because of those teachers. And those teachers, those faculty members are making bare minimum with PhDs and over 10 years of service. So, I would be20831 very interested to see what we can do as a legislative body to ensure that the staffing continues to meet the20839 cost of living for many of20841 these professors. You know, they're they're working20843 1 to 2 to 3 different kind of jobs outside of the faculty, position that they have. So I'm interested to see what we can do, from your perspective, but also to, as far as credit transfers. So you talk about, you know, a lot of people go to to get, you know, a community college with, like, the intent potentially to transfer to a 4 year, college to get a bachelor's degree, or further. What are the barriers that you're seeing as far as the community college level as far as the transfer of credits? Are we seeing, like, an equal ratio that the majority of our credits are the students' credits are being transferred, or is there an issue around credits being transferred?
MACKINNON - Thank you for the question. I'll take them in reverse order if that's okay. The transfer issue: thanks to your leadership last year in the budget, you actually established a transfer steering committee. I think it was called the Massachusetts transfer steering committee that is, I think, just starting to get underway now, and I know chair Comerford is involved in that as well. We believe that it's necessary to look at the challenge of where we are losing students and where students are losing credits. It remains true that a lot of our students report back that they had an easier time transferring credits to a private institution than 1 of our own publics, but I know Commissioner Ortega and the department are committed to that and trying to solve it. So I think I think the steps are underway to take to the next level to solve that problem, and you've already taken the first step towards it. The question on20944 compensation, you know, our challenge is that, you know, first of all, if20950 you spend time with faculty and staff at community college, you know they're certainly not doing it for the money.
They are doing it because they love the work and are very passionate about it. Most of our faculty, a majority of them, are teaching back at our institutions at night. They're moonlighting at their own day job to be able to make ends meet, and we can't sustain that. The other challenge we have is that the existing process for collective bargaining that the state has makes it so that we can only get very small incremental change on the current very, very low base. And so we do need the legislature's help in this, we feel. And whether that's a classification study, as I mentioned in my remarks, or something else, we have to figure out something different because it's just not working as it is. And we got away with this in the community colleges as a state for some time because our enrollment was going down, and so the attrition wasn't really a big deal. Now we are growing rapidly, and we can't hire what we need to hire because people won't accept the job because of the low salary, and because they can work anywhere else and get a lot more money. And so it is. I appreciate you bringing it up, and we really do need some partnership with the legislature to figure out how we can solve it.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much, Nate, and thank you, representative. And it's important to note that the commission that Nate spoke about is either Chica or Cheka, depending on who you talk to. And the next, it's Cheka?
SPEAKER12 - That's what I said.
COMERFORD - The next meeting is coming up, and it's all about faculty compensation.
SPEAKER8 - Great.
COMERFORD - So I appreciate that question. Thank you, Nate. Next up, we're going to hear from please Vin. We're going to hear from Doctor Linda Thompson. She was unable to, you know, hang with us in this crazy long marathon, but we are very grateful that Vin Pedoni, who leads the State University Council of Presidents, is here. And, Vin, thank you so much for being here. And thank you in absentia to Doctor Thompson, who's so wonderful.
VINCENT PEDONI - STATE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS - Thanks, Senator. Yes. Senator, and members, president Thompson did wanna be here. She is actually hosting on Westfield State's a forum and a discussion on the importance of free press in our democracy. And it starts at 05:30, so it's probably just starting now. And she was, she has people from all over the country. It's open not only to Westfield State but to the region, and she does pass on her regrets. And I have to then pass on my condolences for having to suffer through my testimony on behalf of her behalf. But, I will say that we, senator, senator, members, thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for this hearing, for this opportunity to speak on the governor's budget, and in particular, thank you for your service. You know, it's not lost on any of us that we are public servants, and the work that you do is long hours. Thank you to your staff. Thank you to our court officers. Thank you for being here21146 and giving us this opportunity. So we would like to. I'm gonna submit President Thompson's testimony and just speak on 3 important issues that the state universities have. So the governor's recommendations today, the budget today, is a great investment. It's carrying on with the investments that the legislature has made over the 2 budget cycles, historic investments in our public higher education21172 system.
And this budget is now a continuation of that, and we're supportive of the governor's recommendations, especially around investing in our deferred maintenance needs, which will then leverage the bond bill that has been spoken about a number of times in this committee, and our line on item appropriations. There are 3 areas of concern that we do have and 1 area of big support that I just wanna share with you. So the first area of concern is that the governor zeroed out the State University's funding formula line item. This line item is incredibly important to us. In fact, this line item, as president Meehan, pointed to and as as as my colleague Nate McKinnon alluded to, funding collective bargaining agreements is always a challenge year to year, and there are there are significant portion of our collective bargaining agreements that are not funded by the state, which means for us as state universities, there we have 2 sources of funding, the student and the state. So if the student isn't picking up the if the state isn't picking up the full cost of the collective bargaining agreements, the student does. As you all know from the committee, along with our unfunded liabilities with the collective bargaining agreement, there is also the unfunded liability of the fringe benefit costs. And now fringe benefit costs for Massachusetts in this fiscal year is around 44%. So for every million dollars of unfunded liabilities for our salary lines that come in through a collective bargaining agreement, that's it's $444,000 additional on top of that.
So we would ask you, to consider to push the administration, consider pushing21287 the administration to fully fund our collective bargaining agreements and to consider recapitalizing our State University funding formula. That does go to the operational side of our institutions, and it helps make up those unfunded liabilities. It's critically important to us. The second item that we would like to raise, and President Meehan talked about it a lot, is the money for our mass grant plus line item. The governor recommended level funding of this line. And, again, President Meehan alluded to it. Senator Olivera and I actually asked the question directly to the commissioner, but I'd just like to address it. Level funding of that line will not meet the existing need that exists today, next year.
So students who are receiving state aid under the Mass Grant Plus line will not be able to21339 get some students will not be able to get that same amount of need without increased funding. Just back of the napkin, costs for the state universities is around $7,000,000, of an unfunded, a need that we predict will exist if there isn't more money put into the into the Mass Grant plus line. So we would ask you to consider working with the Department of Higher Ed. So, Senator, so we could get an actual number of what the deficiency would be just to level fund the existing demand. That doesn't account for, increased increased need through enrollment, through enrollment. The 1 area that I will point out that we are thrilled that the governor took the legislature's lead on is the State University success program. The governor advanced to the legislature recommendations to fund the State University Success Program21395 at $14,000,000. This was in response to the legislature in the FY25 budget launching that program for us. As my colleague Nate talked about earlier, there is data that shows that this works, and we would ask you to consider following the governor's recommendations and continuing the program that you initiated in the last fiscal year for our state university's success program.
We mentioned the BRIGHT Act, and it's been mentioned a number of times. Let me just say that I can look across the panel. Maybe Brett Holmes or Senator Fatman was around when we did the last, last higher ed bond bill in 02/2008. That was a huge success. Huge success. All of our public higher ed campuses, our state university campuses, had, had an opportunity to build new buildings and upgrade our facilities. It is needed again. In fact, if you look21462 at the deferred maintenance needs across our entire public higher ed system, it's the you know, it's over 521470 or $6,000,000,000 across our system. So, this is an important bill. We would ask you to you know when it does come up, and we would ask you to consider advancing it.
We would also ask you, and I know this is not the hearing for this, but, we would ask you to increase that number, especially on the fair if it's being funded through special obligation bonds with the fair share dollars, we would ask you to consider increasing that number so that each of our segments, UMass, state universities, and community colleges get an equal share of the21500 funds rather than, continuing kind of this this way of 50% of everything goes to UMass and 50% is split between its state universities and community colleges. We would ask you to consider increasing the bond so that each campus and each system gets a fair share. And the 1 area that I do want to, read directly from president Thompson because these are this is in her voice, not mine, is speaking about some of the issues that we are facing on our campuses as the presidents are facing and all of you all of us are hearing about the, what's happening in DC.
And I'm gonna read what President Thompson has written because she is significantly more graceful and elegant than me. To close, I'd like to share my frustration and disappointment on the federal actions that have caused fear, uncertainty, and frustration throughout our campuses. Despite these actions, we as servants of the Commonwealth will do all in our power to support, encourage, and guide our students in the best way possible. We remain steadfast in our commitment to offer a diverse learning environment where everyone is respected and valued. So thank you, members of the committee. Thank you, Senator, for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the State University's council of presidents, and I'm available to answer any questions.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much, Vin. And please, again, give our best to President Thompson. Do we have any questions? It's that time of the hearing where you'll21599 get fewer questions. Thank you very much.
21601 SPEAKER821601 -21601 You21601
SPEAKER29 - said it You
SPEAKER22 - were so clear. You
SPEAKER4 - were so clear.
COMERFORD - We appreciate your advocacy and your very specific points about where we can and should do better.
SPEAKER29 - Thank you.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER3 - Thank you, everyone.
COMERFORD - Alright, friends. The next panel is on K-12 education. Please welcome Glenn Kucher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, doctor Mary Bork, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, Margaret Raymond Driscoll, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials, doctor Maureen Marshall, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools, and doctor Bridget Hines, vice21648 chair of the Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee.
SPEAKER2 - You got a fucking camera.
SPEAKER30 - Good afternoon.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you. Afternoon.
MARY BURKE - MASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS - Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Doctor Mary Burke, and I serve as the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents. Our organization represents superintendents and assistant superintendents from over 274 school districts across the Commonwealth. This afternoon, I am joined by my colleagues on this panel, each of whom will21688 speak to the urgent financial challenges facing our school districts. While we will highlight our respective areas of concern,21696 please know that we fully support and endorse 1 another's testimonies and priorities. Across the Commonwealth, from Western Massachusetts to Cape Cod and everywhere in between, the financial strain on our school districts is undeniable. In many communities, expenses are rising at a far greater rate than the revenue available to support them. Districts report significant cost increases in key areas such as out-of-district special education tuition, transportation, utilities, and health insurance. At the same time, revenue is simply not keeping pace with these escalating costs.
FY 25 marks the first time in 3 years that chapter 70 increases were on par with the inflation rate. Add to this the ending of federal funds for pandemic recovery. We are facing a perfect storm of fiscal challenges that has led to a widespread pattern of serious budget gaps projected for FY 26. To close the financial gaps, superintendents are proposing to their school committees and constituents solutions that are far from ideal, including staff layoffs, reduction or elimination of programs and services, and even school closures. Some towns will attempt proposition 2 and a half overrides to generate additional tax revenue.21785 But in many communities, those efforts will be defeated.21789 Even when an override is successful, it is often a temporary fix that fails to overcome the structural deficit facing a school district. In the long term, there is no question that Massachusetts must make bold revisions to its education funding formula. But there are also steps this legislature can take in the short term to provide some financial relief to school districts across the commonwealth. I21812 would like to highlight 4 to expand the reimbursement rate of the circuit breaker.
Expand the reimbursement rate of21832 the circuit breaker. Over the past 3 years, private school tuition alone has increased by 22%. Last year, only 44% of special education transportation costs were reimbursed through circuit break up, not the 75% for which districts budgeted due to the unanticipated high number of transportation costs in the state. The FY 26 budget is the perfect time to increase the reimbursement thresholds for all special education services, instruction, tuition, and transportation to 90%. And ensure that those funds are available in a timely manner and without delay. Continue to fund the Student Opportunity Act toward the 7-year statutory requirement. The passage of this landmark legislation in 2019 signaled a renewed commitment to supporting districts that support some of our highest-needs students. I served for 2 years on the Foundation Budget Reform Commission and subsequently advocated for the Student Opportunity Act.
We did a great we did great work. And as the former superintendent of the Chelsea Public Schools, I thank you. But we did leave our rural and regional colleagues behind. It is time to look at the formula for all students. Linked to the above, fully fund rural school aid. In 2022, the legislature's commission on the fiscal health of rural schools recommended allocating 60,000,000 annually to support our districts in rural areas. Today, we continue to fall far short of that target at only 16,000,000. We urge the legislature to fund the program at the recommended 60,000,000. Finally, increase the per pupil minimum aid to $150 per student. The 150 per student would give our minimum aid districts in the Commonwealth the additional resources to meet the needs of every student in the meantime. If enacted, these 4 priorities would go a long way in helping districts balance their budgets and maintain the level of services they currently provide for f y 26. Let's come together and solve the problems of the larger issues in time in the next year. But for now, FY26 is our immediate need. I turn it now to my colleague, Doctor Hines.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much for that testimony.
BRIDGET HYNES - UMASS AMHERST - Thank you. Thank you all for having me here today. As a small-town school committee member from right here in Western Mass, our meetings are usually uneventful. We sit in a quiet high school library, and we're a thoughtful group; we listen well to each other, some of my peers are here to support me today, and we try to do the best for our schools. But now we're in budget season, and our quiet library is no longer quiet. As with many, it's just completely overflowing. We've run out of chairs. As many people as there are in the room, there are on our Zooms, and a few weeks ago, over 2 nights, more than 200 people attended. We heard 7 hours of testimony. Okay. I know you guys don't sympathize. We received a thick book's worth of public comments. This feedback was in response to a fiscal year 26 budget that22056 would cost 40 positions across our school district. Parent after parent came before us and shared how valuable the people being cut were to their child or children.
Parents spoke in support of our instrumental music pack program, which is facing cuts for the second year in a row. A fifth grader shared how learning to play an instrument made her more confident in math and braver in social situations, and some youngsters came out and performed for us. Several parents shared how their students struggled from kindergarten through first grade and second grade while their peers started to flourish and learn to read, and they just felt lost at school. Then, their students spent a year with our amazing reading specialist, and those children are now reading at or close to grade level. 1 of the dads came before us and spoke with emotion about how their very proud child was reading to him at bedtime and now looked forward to going to school. That position is on the chopping block. Position after position of very meaningful things to our families are at risk this year. In any other context, these hours of testimony would have spoken to our district's success. Instead, we're facing heart-wrenching pleas not to let these teachers22143 go.
Our ambitious, hardworking teachers who will be left working in the schools next year22151 also spoke. We have national and statewide award-winning teachers here in Amherst Schools. They partner with MIT and UMass and Amherst College, and they go above and beyond. But they spoke up to tell us they can't do more with less anymore. Our classroom demographics are changing, and the class sizes are burgeoning. This is a brutal year on the tier end of a series of brutal years. While our enrollments have22178 declined, sure, their outpaced22180 by teacher cuts by 20%. For our middle school, we'll go from 23 core teachers 10 years ago to 12 core teachers in this coming budget. Our principals presented the22194 cuts. Our middle school principal, who was a former superintendent, shared that he knew this budget moved away from best practices for middle schoolers. An elementary school principal is famous in town for his cheerful demeanor and is almost as famous for climbing on the roof of his school when the teachers or the students hit a reading goal. He called these proposed cuts carnage.
We also have capital expenses that have reached a breaking point. Just in the last month, we had, due to a leaking roof, a tile hit a student on the head, and another school we closed for a day due to asbestos from a different leaking building with a leaking tile. By the second night of our public comment, I found myself with tears streaming down my face. Now I was embarrassed because I'm a little bit of a toughie. And then I looked up around the room, and I just was not alone. There were people with tears throughout the space. And this isn't just breaking hearts in Amhers;t when I was on a Zoomcall with school committee folks from all over the state. They're explaining that there are tears in their budget hearings as well. Our fixed costs have skyrocketed.
Transportation, health care, utilities, retirement, they're all in double digits. Here in Amherst, despite excellent schools, 26% of our Chapter 70 minimum aid budget goes to local charter schools, which are expanding as our region's pool of students shrinks. This leaves us nowhere to cut but closest to our students. We are a tough, smart, resilient, and skilled group of people in our town, and we are here in a town and a state that value education. And yet, we're crying. We're at a loss. We don't know what to do. So, I'm asking you for 3 things. I think it's 4 in the end, honestly. I'm aligned with my friend here. Put fair share surplus funds towards the minimum aid hold harmless22320 districts. For low-income22322 and moderate-income districts like ours, fund the22325 charter schools directly rather than draw from our school's minimum age. Fully fund rural school aid and increase the circuit breaker for our children with extra22335 needs. And maybe, hopefully, with a little help from all you fine folks, we can dry22342 our tears and smile together as we22344 do the good work that is k through 1222346 education.
SPEAKER 4 - Thank you, Doctor Hines.
MARGARET DRISCOLL - MASBO - Thank you so much to my colleagues and all of you for being here throughout this day,22356 sharing our work with us. My name is Margaret Raymond Driscoll. as the22362 executive22362 director of the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials, also known as MASBO. I'm proud to represent the hundreds of school finance and operational professionals in K to 12 public schools across the Commonwealth who ensure that district funds are used responsibly, transparently, and accountably in service to students and their success. I'm also a volunteer 17-year school committee member with 7 years as22391 chair in my hometown. In partnership with superintendents and school committees, our22397 members explain not just how dollars are spent but where the money comes from, when it arrives, and why it must be used in certain ways, translating school financial data into understandable insights.
Like you, we share the frustration of our collective community members when they ask, Why are classes being cut? Why22418 can't my child's teacher remain in our district? Why22422 can't we train our teachers to be22424 the best they can be? When the answer is complex, systemic, and often outside the control of the district, fortunately, you have the22433 authority to provide the funding that provides some calm amidst our current fiscal storm. As such, I strongly concur with my colleagues' remarks and requests and add the following. Predicting the fiscal situation now, let alone in the future, is virtually impossible. Responsible budgeting in our districts is not simply about numbers. It's about making choices that keep money focused on teaching and learning in the classroom. Without the financial support that maintains some ability to plan, districts in alignment with municipalities can't provide citizens with school districts that fuel their children's educational experience. While federal pandemic relief funds have sunset, their necessity has not, as you've heard today. The learning gaps caused by language delays, social isolation, and a surge in mental health challenges continue to vex our schools and communities alike. Educators and parents are22492 still managing these daily realities, and they increasingly turn to you and us for clarity, direction, and stability. With federal funding gone, the privilege of helping our children remains, and we need your help.
Choosing not to invest now, whether in staff, student services, preventative maintenance, or instructional supports, leads to greater costs later. The ripple effects of underfunding aren't temporary. They reverberate through future years, buildings, and generations of learners. We ask that you not allow this to happen. Every second grader has only 1 year of second grade. Inflation has hit all of your constituents, and schools are feeling the same effects. Citizens often tell us to live within our means. But how do districts do that when they have appropriate and respectful spending requirements as well as other laws and regulations that provide quality education to all? We are at a tipping point. We are doing more with less is now doing less with less, and sometimes a lot less. Lastly, what do you see when you visit schools? I know you all are in school buildings. What were your own great educational experiences? Why do we collectively do this work? Because even in the hard times, it's inspirational and aspirational. It's sparking curiosity, igniting learning, and shaping the next generation of22588 contributors to our commonwealth. Your financial support doesn't just fund a system. It funds possibility. We're extremely grateful for your dedication to our students, and we are also grateful for your partnership. Together, let's focus where we belong, on the students we serve and the future we deserve, by providing the funding that is foundationally critical to the success of our children. Thank you.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you, Margaret. Doctor Marshall.
MAUREEN MARSHALL - QUABBIN REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT - Thank you very much for continuing to remain here this long day for you. I'm very impressed. You are all there, and you are all looking at us still. And I think that bodes well for our conversations today. I'd like to believe that the eloquence of previous speakers would be enough to move you, to move you to make some decisions that would be in the best interest of our children. I wanna just say a couple of things to you. Did you know that out of 319 school districts in the Commonwealth, 232 will only receive $75 per pupil this year from additional state aid? That's if the governor's budget passed as is. Think about that. 319 school districts and 232 are on held harmless status. Some of the districts in that number of 3,232 have been in a held harmless status for in excess of 2 decades. During those 2 decades, those tools had to do was to work closely with their independent communities, most of whom are very independent, to try to bridge the gap. But believe me, over those 2 decades or 1 decade, children suffered.
Things didn't happen for them that happened in other school districts. Think another fact for you. $420,000,000 or a 6.17% increase in chapter 70 in the governor's budget 10, okay, 10 districts will receive 58% of that money. 20 districts will receive 73% of that money. I needn't tell you that the 232 will receive none of that money. They will only receive the minimum student aid that started at $30 some years ago and ratcheted22755 up as it became more and more obvious to everyone that being in held harmless status did not make the differences that students need year to year. The towns now are the rural towns, most of which are in regions, as well as the regional school districts, are in desperate shape. Every year, we expect that perhaps there'll be an effort to get 100% reimbursement for regional transportation subject to appropriation, we know. And this year, it's 80. Some year, maybe we'll get to 90.22792 But remember, something is happening in our school districts about transportation. Even though 2 or 3 vendors come and pick up the paperwork to bid, only 1 ever shows up to turn in the paperwork.
People are paying 511, 5 hundred and 8 dollars per day per bus. Do the math. Some of our school districts have extraordinary distances in them. The Quabbin Regional School District, 1 that I'm familiar with, is 36 miles across. They go 18 miles this way, 18 miles that way,22832 and somewhere in between. Kids are on the bus for at least an hour. If you're in less than an hour, you feel really special. Not that we're complaining about that. That's the way of regional schools. We're used to that. That's okay. But at least when they get to school, they'd like a fair chance. Our teachers would like a fair chance. I do not know of any regional, and I don't know if representative Scarsdale was made, you know, of 1 where they are not reducing force and somehow limiting the number of opportunities and access to programs for students.
Some of you talked today about the Wachusett Regional School District. It is the largest regional school district in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It supports 5 different towns, and I would tell you the land mass that they cover is immense. The number of buses that they run, immense. And I would tell you, only 1 vendor ever shows up to put in a bid to take the students to and from school. Everybody22893 signs a non-collision, you know, part of the contract. Everyone does.22897 Just seems odd to us some days. 35% is not an unusual amount to see as the increase for transportation contracts. That is pretty standard this past, okay, shall we say, time frame when people were putting in a 3 year budget. 30%. Northborough Southborough, a regional school district, probably 1 of the best okay as far as having a lot of per capita income. Very They're substantial. They just got a 30% increase in transportation costs, and they even made the newspaper with that. So, Mary and Margaret both have spoken about what are some of the things we can do as a stop gap.
We need a stopgap, but a stopgap's not gonna fix it. We urge and encourage you, okay, to not only look at the chapter 70 formula. I realize that there is some legislation out there that Senator Lewis is proposing to look at, Chapter 70. What we cannot do is spend 5 years thinking about it. That would be dead, for we'd be dead in the water. There's no way for us to proceed if I think you're gonna take another 5 or 6 years. And there's no way that you get to sit there like you did with the, you know, rural schools commission and then put all that work and effort into it and then not fund it anyway. So I beg you to contemplate22990 that this22992 is a very serious problem that deserves your immediate attention. We22998 will do, and I speak for the agencies who sit here, we will do whatever we can to help and assist. And I know our principals, our superintendents, and all of those school districts that I speak of, those so-called held harmless. It's almost a bad word for us now these days. Held harmless for what? Okay. There are school districts that are getting 20 years with not an extra cent in Chapter 70 because they've lost a thousand kids over the 20-year period. There's there's you and I both know. All of those extra costs that those districts have been, you know, been put on their shoulders, they've shouldered them with the help of their communities. And I am gonna tell you many of them teeny little rural communities that came together in these regional school districts with all kinds of promise. And the promises have not been kept. And so we urge you, we beg you. Please help those school districts that, without you you are no longer harmless.
SPEAKER 4 - Thank you, Doctor Marshall. Glenn.
GLENN KOOCHER - MASC - In conclusion, I wanna take a different course here. I'm not gonna repeat what's already been said, members of the committee, because you've seen our priorities, and we are aligned with those. I wanna raise a different issue, and I'll get there within 3 minutes. Late last year, a bipartisan coalition, excuse me, in the Congress eliminated the windfall elimination program and the government pension offset for Social Security. MASC worked on that for 25 years. I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime, but a bipartisan coalition of Congress did it. And 1 of the factors was that we had urged state legislators to speak to their congressional representatives. Excuse me. Representatives. And members like Jim McGovern, Richie Neal, and others helped execute that terrific improvement, which will benefit many public school educators who were suffering a penalty as a result of their state pensions. They'll be getting the check soon if they haven't already. The point I'm making is that there are other items that rely on the federal government and where we, together in a bipartisan way, can advocate for the well-being of kids.
80,000 children in Massachusetts benefit, excuse me, from Medicaid. 20,000 students get Medicare, largely disabled dependent children. Excuse me. Another 80,000 pre-k students through grade 12 or 16 get social security as dependent survivors or dependent disabled children. Those services underwrite the well-being of children. If we let Medicaid go, get cut, if Social Security is tampered with, if any of these federal services are sacrificed as we try to, balance our budgets, and I understand there's principal disagreement about the best way to do that, but if these programs are on the cutting line, and over the weekend, that's much of what we heard on the talk shows, We could be taking health services away, economic security away, nutrition away from kids and family across the country who need it. And I think a bipartisan coalition at the state and the national level can resolve that, and I think we should make that a priority. Because excuse me. If we take away those benefits, not everyone will be served, and we will have ended up rationing them to those who get them. And we have never in the history of this commonwealth rationed health care services or nutrition services or economic services to our children and families. So those are my thoughts for the day, and I just wanted to get to something that you probably haven't heard,23280 but I think they're important priorities, and I think they're something that you can help us with as you have helped us immeasurably in the past.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much. Thank you to this panel for your testimony. It's impassioned, and we see you and hear you. First to ranking member, Smola, for a question.
SMOLA - Thank you very much for your testimony here today. We certainly hear the passion in your voice, and I know that the committee appreciates the good work that you do and your level of advocacy here today. It's been a tough year. There's no question about it. And there's a lot of different components that are being looked at this year, particularly with the concerns from the federal level. I will say in terms of the, you know, the some of your comments, you know, I'm not ready to to say that everything is gonna be doom and gloom. Now, I grant you, I wouldn't be approaching things on the federal level the way that the current administration is either, and it's something that for those of us us been around here for a few years, we are unaccustomed to. No question23348 about that. And, you know, having some certainty about the future is obviously the thing in predictability that we enjoy most, but, unfortunately, that's not happening at this point. But putting that aside for a moment, to go to some of the commentary relative to the chapter 70 formula, yeah, it's way long overdue for reform.
And I appreciate the comments of chair Kummerford before in terms of trying to nail down secretary Tottweiler on the administration's perspective. Now the challenge in the legislature is to come out and kinda take the lead on that in the legislature. Everybody has a different opinion about chapter 70. I've talked to some of you about this as well. There are winners and there's losers as we adjust this formula. And as time has gone on, we've never really done a major overhaul of chapter 70. We've added and adjusted it as time has23399 gone on, and as those components move around, school districts benefit and others don't. And sometime, you don't hear a peep from some members of23407 this body because chapter 70, the way it is, always works out really well for them,23411 but I think at least the vast majority of us, particularly in Western And Central Massachusetts, see the value in a massive reform to chapter 70 because it's problematic, and it's long overdue. So I, like, chair Commerford, would love to see the administration take kind of the lead on it and say, can we come together and let's make this, an initiative that we're all gonna work on together because I think waiting for the legislature to come to the table and have that kumbaya come to Jesus moment on it may not happen the way that we would like it to.
And it's getting harder and harder every single year to deal with these budgets. So as you come here and you look for these increases in various categories, nobody ever comes to us and asks us for less money. It's just a that's just a plain cold hard fact, and, you know, when it happens, I'll have a massive coronary in public in front of everybody. Right? There's nothing wrong with that, by the way, because that's kind of what our mission is. Right? We wanna build upon the things that we believe in. Right? The programs that work, the ones that have value. But to that end, I wanna hit this rural aid funding once again because I was a little bit concerned about the answer I got from Secretary Tutwiler. And I think there's a bigger there's kind of a broader statement that the secretary made, and I want to get your reaction to it. And kind of the broader statement was, you know, representative, the reason that we level-funded it at 16,000,000 despite the fact that the report, you know, has recommended it should be funded at 60,000,000 is because we took a holistic approach. Right? And I'm paraphrasing, so, you know, don't say I'm quoting the secretary, but we took a holistic approach, and so what we did in other funding areas is that, you know, we tried to compensate that municipalities and school systems are going to do well in other categories, which is 1 of the reasons why we level funded it.
And boy, that worries the heck out of me in terms of an approach, because at least in the municipalities I've talked to, I don't think everybody is getting that holistic approach that well, if you don't increase this category, particularly rural aid and others, right, that we are doing extremely well because you've been so generous in these other categories. So I want to put you on the spot here today because it's a serious issue. It's something the legislature is going to look at. We're going to make the decision over the course of the next few months on where we will prioritize increases in funding between the House and the Senate. So if the administration's perspective is we're pretty satisfied with the House 1 version of what we're proposing and we're not increasing x, y, and z category because we've done it better in other places and you're gonna make out well, I wanna hear what you have to say about that approach. So anybody. It's not directed specifically to anybody.
KOOCHER - It argues persuasively for an immediate sit down and a reconstitution of the foundation budget review committee so that the various strategies can be worked out. There are those chapter 70 purists who don't like the idea of putting band aids on chapter 70, band aid by band aid, but believe that a structural23586 change needs to take place. There are tweaks to the foundation budget and the funding system that could work around that as, what do23596 you ad hoc solutions that are baked into the system that end up being permanent. We've had some ideas about that, and certainly, we and many others are able to share them. But I don't think you would be ill-advised to correct the problems of small and rural districts with a specific strategy just for them.
The other thing that I think I heard the secretary say was that maybe he didn't want the Department of Education doing the Chapter 70 revisions, but that he felt that was the responsibility of the legislature. I never thought I would hear a state cabinet secretary say that because we have been saying that for a very long time. And, if you wanted to strip the department of its ability to write regulations, I think we'd, you could be legislative through the year or before the end of the week. But saying, I think you can work that out, and I think we can work out the details, getting everybody to the table in a reconciliatory mode and figuring out specifically how we fix the small and rural district issue and how we fix the equity issue around property values versus income as the criteria for determining wealth of the community. Because there are many communities where a lot of those big houses and high-wealth real estate belong to people that bought their houses in the sixties and seventies, only to be in their advanced stages stuck with inflation values of their houses and high tax bills?
BURKE - Representative, I think in a nutshell, what you will hear from all of us23704 at 1 point or another is we disagree with the secretary of education. We love them daily,23708 but we disagree with them. And we do believe that, yes, there needs to be the 60,000,000 for our role, you know, colleagues. And then we do need to get in a room. We keep talking to each other, around each other. We keep complaining and coming to you every single year. I'd like to not show up to a public hearing where I'm talking about Chapter 70 and underfunding. But then again, too, I go back to when I was a Chelsea Superintendent. I was president of MASS at the time, and the Foundation Budget Reform Commission was being formed. And that first year, we walked into a room where we were not believed that urban districts, gateway communities were being significantly underfunded. And keep in mind, it took 2 years to get through and to convince people and legislators and stakeholders and23763 constituents we were being underfunded and the governor23767 at the time, and then it took23769 another 4 years for advocacy. I don't want that timeline. That timeline was a wasted timeline for children in our most significantly underfunded districts at that point in the history of the Commonwealth. Let's not repeat bad history. Let's make it better this time.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much. Senator Kennedy, please. Thank you
KENNEDY - so much, madam chair, and thank you all for your perspectives and adding to the voice here. I wanna focus on transportation, and it struck me and Doctor Marshall, something you said really struck me as you were speaking. You know, my entire professional career, and I'm sure for those others before me, from working in state government to working for a provider, transportation has always been a cost driver and has always been unbearable. And I appreciate we're at somewhat of a tipping point now. But 1 of the things that you mentioned that really hit home for me was this notion of23829 we essentially have a monopoly. Right? And so, year after year, we're dealing with increasing costs with limitations on being able to address the fact that is the case. I represent a district that recently brought transportation in-house. No,w mind you, it's a major gateway city, a large city, and I also represent a regional school district 2 regional school districts. Excuse me.
So, I appreciate the difference, but as they say, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. 1 of the things I put out to this group for comment now or something, certainly maybe for follow-up work, is what can we do to address this? Is it technical assistant grants to help school committees or school districts consider different models of transportation? Is there a broader kind of regional plan that we could help develop? Again, how do we think about getting around what we know is, quite frankly, in many ways, out of our hands23884 or out of our control because we have 1 organization, 1 agency that's allowed to set that rate,23890 set those determinations? And we know that part of the struggle is that we also don't have control over what we need a bus here to take a field trip on this day, or we wanna partner with our after-school providers and do some transportation. We know that that's lacking because hands are also tied on the availability of this 1 company's bus capacity. And so I don't know if there's an answer that you might have or certainly welcome some additional conversation because I do think when it comes to transportation, especially given the budget crisis we're facing is we need to think differently and would love to think about how maybe some short term investments could help transform the way that we provide transportation. So, again, welcome. Any thought now or certainly follow-up?
MARSHALL - Just briefly, there have been a number of school districts who have contemplated doing their own transportation, and there's only 1 or 2 consortiums within, I think, the Western part of the state that have been pretty successful. Their real need is you have to have the capacity to upfront literally millions of dollars to get the equipment in order to do the work. If you're talking about a typical regional school district, the size of what you said, you're talking about 50 buses. And then the clientele to drive them and to manage the clientele to get them trained and it and to insure them and so forth. And then to hire the mechanic group that has to maintain this the, buses so that you can have them, you you know, user friendly all the time. There are a lot of state requirements if you are going to, you know, do work with student transportation, the incredible costs of insurance. So I really do understand why it does cost the vendor a lot of money and why the vendor has to say, if I'm gonna buy 25 new buses to get the, whatever, book school, you know, transportation contract, you have to be darn sure, you upfront. You make sure you've got enough money in that 3-year contract that you24011 bid on or that 3-year with a 2-year, you know, extension.
And, you once you've kind of positioned yourself in part of the community where you24019 have a bus, okay, fleet that manages a big vocational district and a big regional district, k, you own it because no 124029 can come in there and oust you out. In the early days, you know, rider transportation and there's a few other, you know, laid lot. They were huge. They came in and pushed a few, the locals out of places like Fitchburg and some of the cities, and they didn't last very long. They were gone. And some of the new ones who, you know, kind of incorporated themselves into it, it's the same vendors year and year out now, and they're the only ones with the equipment and the only ones who, you know, can afford to continue to bid. And, not that I think this is true. This is just a fantasy doctor Marshall has, that I would be sitting having lunch with a couple other vendors, and I would say, hey. I've got enough buses to go to Shrewsbury and do what you said, but I can't do anything in Worcester. You don't hear me? Can't do anything in Worcester. And the next thing you know, there's only 1 bidder in Shrewsbury and Wachusett because it is a place, and imagine trying to get up and ready to run that many buses by, you know, a particular time frame in the year. And so, do I think that happens? In my fantasy, but I certainly don't know if it's the truth.
BURKE - Senator, I will also add that representative Paish and senator Hines, who is no longer in the senate, did do a study on transportation about 4 years ago, and there's a really good solid list of recommendations. Additionally, the former auditor, auditor Bump, she did, the year before24124 she retired, because I know I worked with Ben Tafora on this, report, a great report on, transportation, and it's very well done. It has the recommendations, some creative ideas in terms of what you're talking about grants, but grants that have to be 5 years in order to get there. But also to they very clearly talk about the fact that transportation needs to be looked at because of the fact that so many districts in there, you know, that they interviewed would talk about 1 vendor. 1 bidder, so to speak. So, I would recommend those 2 very highly rated reports.
COMERFORD - Thank you24171 very much, and thank you for raising that report. Representative Kilcoyne.
KILCOYNE - Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'll try to keep this brief. I know we're late. I first just wanted to thank your panel for her especially uplifting regional schools and some of the challenges that they face. I'm a proud graduate of Wachusett Regional, and what I am so grateful for in looking back on my education is, when I think about regional schools, I think about opportunities. If it weren't for Wachusett, I would not have had access to a number of classes of teaching of teachers of programs that enabled me to enrich my own education in public schools and set me on the path that led me to where I am right now. And so, having now the honor and privilege of representing both what she said and several other regional schools, I am so deeply concerned that so many are staring down the prospects of staff, the significant staffing reductions even if the budgets are passed by their individual member towns.
And I do think it's worth noting that all of these regional schools aren't just talking to 1 community. They need every single community in their region to pass a budget, all maybe pass look at overrides, and still that budgets may be looking at serious staff reductions that are going to significantly impact our students. I know in some cases, reducing the number of teachers while it may, give them a, like, lower and reduce some of the cost, it's not necessarily being driven by some of the enrollment numbers that we're seeing, and will lead to increased class sizes or reduction in certain programs and classes that our students cannot be have an opportunity to take. And so I guess what I wanna emphasize here is we've heard a lot about the challenges of the foundation budget, but I think we all recognize that's going to be a long-term conversation that we all have to have together. When we're talking about the budgetary needs, we are looking at the immediate future of the next really few weeks,
And I think 1 of the helpful things of today's hearing is hearing how important some of the proposed cuts to things such as rural school districts are going to have. I've been part of the regional school transportation budget since before I even got elected, so, knowing how important that reimbursement is, but I would just ask that you continue to emphasize what we need to know when we're writing the budget in the next month of what immediate ways we can support our regional schools to ensure that our students are not gonna feel the really severe impacts of of these cuts because I know that it is really is devastating for me to think about students having fewer opportunities in the very same school or schools like what you sit, and24350 not having the same things such as class choices, having fewer, teachers to be able to impart that wisdom onto them. I just welcomed an AP government class to the state house on Friday, and we don't wanna see classes like that be at the risk of being cut because we're not adequately funding our schools. So, I think it's so important to. I want to do what I can this budget cycle to support the students now. And the long term, I look forward to working with you to make sure the students of24385 the future are going to have the same opportunities24387 I did. Sorry. That was a very long-winded question, and I apologize, madam chair. But thank you very much.
COMERFORD - No. We appreciate you, representative. Does anyone want to respond?
MARSHALL- I didn't hear a question.
KILCOYNE - Well, I think the question I guess I should say is it's not necessarily a question, and you've done a good job today, but just make sure you're telling us we recognize the limitations of the foundation budget, but it's not going to be something that we are going to be able to address when we're writing the budget right now. So please, if and even follow-up with us, any immediate funding needs that we need to be aware of, for instance, such as rural, education funding is going to be very helpful in the coming weeks ahead.
COMERFORD- Thank you, representative. Thank you. I don't see any other questions. I'm gonna thank the panel for your service and your work and your leadership and your calls to action. Thank you so much. And thank you to Wachusett, which has hung in here all afternoon. Friends, speaking of and thank you to Amherst. Oh, and Quabbin. Speaking of hanging in, have mercy. We have our last panel, and they are 2 extraordinary humans. They're shaking hands right now. The first is JD Chesloff, who is the president and the CEO of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, and the second is Ed Lambert, who's coming to us remotely and is the executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education. And we're gonna do Ed first, but let me just say, and I know you are known to us, both of you. Is Ed on, Jared? Okay. I know you're known to us, both of you. You are unbelievable advocates for education, from early education to public higher education. We couldn't do this work without you, and in fact, we couldn't have this hearing without you. So thank you for bringing it on home. You are in every commission. You show up, you do your work, you drive us forward, and you help us understand the reciprocity of education in business, and you do that every day excellently. Thank you. So I think we're gonna hear from Ed first, JD, and then we're gonna go to you. Great. Thank you.
ED LAMBERT - MBAE( R ) Thank you. Good afternoon. Can you hear me?
COMERFORD - We can hear you, Ed. Did you hear my gushing?
LAMBERT - I did, and I wanna thank you very much, Senator, for those very kind words and for your leadership and the commitment that you and your colleagues on the panel here have shown today. So, Senator, to you, Representative Duffy, and to all of the members, thank you for the opportunity not only to testify but for the accommodation to do so remotely. I greatly appreciate it. I'm here to speak on behalf of business leaders across the state to ask for your support of a short list of targeted investments in education that the evidence shows are making a big difference for students. We think it's critical, at a time when student academic outcomes are on a downward trend, that we invest in strategies that are evidence-based and come with data showing student success. Massachusetts is losing ground in education. Racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps are widening. And most of our most vulnerable students are at the greatest risk of feeling these consequences for a lifetime.
What's needed to help reverse these trends is investments in evidence-based education strategies that explicitly target students in traditionally marginalized communities. Let's start with high-dosage tutoring. MBAE supports the governor's proposal included in her supplemental budget request to allocate $25,000,000 to provide early literacy high dosage tutoring to 10,000 students next year. Ensuring that all24607 students learn to read by third grade should be 1 of our most urgent educational goals. Only 42 of the Commonwealth's third graders were proficient in reading on the 20 24 MCAS exams, with that number dropping to 24 percent for our low income students. A national study of pandemic learning loss across 43 states showed Massachusetts had 1 of the worst recoveries for reading achievement, ranking 20 seventh in terms of student reading recovery between 2019 and 2024. Our students, on average, are now almost half a grade below the reading achievement levels that we saw before the pandemic. Hispanic students across Massachusetts are 3 quarters of a full grade level behind their pre-pandemic levels in reading. Many of our highest-needs students are stuck in districts where recovery has been especially slow. 86 percent of students are in districts whose average reading achievement remained below their own 2019 levels. High-dosage early literacy tutoring can help us dramatically improve reading proficiency, setting students up for greater success in their learning journey.
A recent evaluation of a grant-funded high-dosage tutoring program in Massachusetts found that students who started the 23rd, 24th school year behind in their reading skills grew substantially more than expected as compared to national norms, achieving 5.4 months of additional learning over the year. With an annual state investment of $25,000,000 for early literacy high dosage tutoring, the state could create a literacy safety net for students in communities with low income rates of over 50 percent. Schools with strong classroom instruction and curricula that use high dosage24705 tutoring interventions to support students who have fallen behind could expect24709 to see reading proficiency rates reach 70 to 80 percent. Whichever budget vehicle you choose to support it, an early commitment24717 would allow for the planning necessary to get this service to the 10,000 students in need by this fall. Next is early college. Preparing students for college and career is another urgent educational challenge that impacts the state's economic competitiveness as well as economic opportunity for our young people.
Early college, which has consistently produced outstanding results for participating students, is a tremendous bright spot in our college and career pathway landscape. Given its consistently strong results and potential to address growing workforce needs, we support its expansion with a $3,000,000 increase. That's a total state investment24754 of 31,250,000.00 explicitly for early college, with $13,100,000 in the dual enrollment grant and subsidies line item, dollars 15,150,000.00 in the early college programs line item, and $3,000,000 explicitly dedicated for early college in the early college and innovation pathways line item. Next, career technical education. Polls and studies consistently show that career technical education is growing in popularity among students and parents alike. Expanding access to it will both meet student demand and help address growing workforce needs. We cannot continue to turn away large numbers of interested students because programs do not have enough seats. We support the governor's proposed $75,000,00024796 for this effort as outlined in the supplemental budget to support the creation24801 of additional CTE seats in any high school where there is a need. And last, a pilot program for student success at the higher24809 ed level. Over the last few years, you and your colleagues in the legislature have made historic investments in higher education access that will allow all students across the Commonwealth to envision higher education as part of their futures.
We ask that you consider protecting that investment and moving us toward greater progress in another vitally important metric: higher education student completion. Recent data show that just 34 percent of community college students will persist through to completion. Now is the time for the state to redouble its efforts to ensure that more students realize the benefits that come with the completion of a degree. The ASAP program,24847 otherwise known as Accelerated Study24849 and Associate Programs, has produced outstanding results and increased student persistence and completion across multiple states. As you face calls for even larger investments in student support, you should consider systemic implementation of student support programs that produce results, starting with a pilot of the ASAP program at 3 to 5 campuses in Massachusetts through a $1,000,000 appropriation for planning and design grants for the coming fiscal year. I wanna thank you very much. I appreciate your endurance today. We certainly appreciate your consideration of these requests, and I'm more than happy to turn the program over to our dear friend and partner in this work, JD Chesloff.
SPEAKER4 - Thank you, Ed. And welcome, JD.
JD CHESLOFF - MBR - Great. Thank you. Thanks, Ed. Thank you, Senator Comerford, Representative Duffy, and members of the committee. I'm JD Cheslav, president, CEO of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable. Many years ago, I was also a staffer at the Ways and Means Committee, so I know exactly what your day has been like. But I also know how important it is, and I'm honored to be asked to be here with you today. I also know you want me to wrap this up, so I'll be very quick. So, at the roundtable, our policy agenda is focused on recruiting, retaining, and developing diverse talent pipelines while fostering a competitive environment for growth. So I was thinking about as I was thinking about the testimony today, I thought, okay, what problem are we trying to solve? What policy problem are we trying to solve? And for us at the roundtable, it is about talent. Right? It's our state's chief competitive advantage. It has been for decades. And 1 of the primary strategies to address it is to build talent pipelines through education policy and investments.
That's why this hearing and what you're doing is so important to us. I've submitted a significantly longer testimony. Let me just say that 3 elements of our policy agenda are relevant to this committee. Caregiving and early childhood education, developing education pathways for all students, and connecting employers to diverse talent at 2 and 4 year higher education institutions. Within that childcare and early education bucket, we believe the24977 state's talent pipeline starts in24979 the earliest years of a child's education. You folks have been unbelievable over the last couple of years in supporting childcare and early childhood. As we look ahead to FY 26, we do support continued investment and prioritization in access and quality, including fully funding Commonwealth Chairs for good for children c 3 operational grants. Within developing education pathways for all students, I'm not gonna repeat because Ed read it all. We do support efforts to expand access to pathways that allow students to earn college credit, participate in work-based learning opportunities, obtain industry-recognized credentials, and have access to STEM education that provides real-world applications in the classroom and beyond. Again, in the testimony are all the sort of detailed line items, and Ed had hit most of them.
Connecting employers to diverse talent and your higher education institutions. We think this is an opportunity to offset the out-migration of residents by finding more ways to connect graduates with employers, particularly in high-demand industries that align with the state's economic and workforce development goals. So this can be done through co-ops, internships, apprenticeships, and stronger connections between industry and higher ed, and that's all in the testimony as well. I will highlight 2 other things. We respectfully ask that you prioritize the BRIGHT Act. I know you asked for more information on that, which we will submit separately. And the Massachusetts Innovation Voucher Program, which has been instrumental in supporting small and medium-sized companies by subsidizing access to cutting-edge research facilities right here at UMass. At the roundtable, we are focused on increasing opportunities to strengthen a connection between education, workforce, and economic development and intentionally connecting educational workforce opportunities to in-demand jobs. And you and I, Senator Comfor, have had a lot of conversations about this. In doing so, we can both grow and diversify the state's workforce pipeline and also strengthen the educational and economic outcomes of young people. So you asked us to comment on DC25105 and what's happening in DC.
25108 I'll25108 say 2 things about that. I'm Iorried25110 about the economy. What I hear from our members is that industries you know, the industries that are foundational to our economy here, higher education, health care, life science, and clean energy, are all vulnerable to funding reductions, and our workforce is vulnerable to the changes in immigration policy. And so all of this is having a chilling effect on our economy right now. There's a lot of retraction by employers, hesitancy to invest, a lot of activity happening, and hiring is slowing. I hear a lot about DEI, a lot. Tariffs, not surprisingly. Federal funding and immigration. I'll just end by saying this. We have surveyed our members on this over the last few months. So we had a board meeting in December, our qQ4board meeting. So this was after the election post-inauguration, and then we had a board meeting last week. So our q 1 meeting. I asked a series of questions. The first was like a word cloud, like how are you feeling about stuff? And back in December, predominantly the responses were around uncertainty. People just didn't know what to expect. This time, it was unpredictability. And that's very different. Right? That's, you know, what's here. It's just not predictable, which is almost from an economic perspective, almost more difficult to navigate. We then asked, What do you think federal activity will mean for the state economy? So back in December, '40 '3 percent % said they thought the federal policy would hurt the state's economy, 43%.
And so the other 57 thought either positive, don't know yet, or won't have an impact. Last week, 88% said they believe there'll be a negative impact on our economy. 12% said they were not sure. No 1 said they think it'll be a positive impact. And I think that's a function of a few things. I think it's a function of the industry mix here, which, as I said, is very, very vulnerable, and our reliance on federal funding to fuel our innovation economy. So we'll see what happens in q 2 at our next board meeting, but it's something that we're tracking. So as we seek to answer that fundamental question of what problem are we trying to solve, I am still pretty bullish, very bullish on Massachusetts. We have a lot to build upon. Yet at the same time, we acknowledge and appreciate the uncertainty at the federal level, the challenges that are provided to you at budget writers, who,l ike employees, are just having a difficult time planning in this unstable economic environment. So, we do believe that by focusing on the talent pipeline from early childhood through higher ed, we can collectively make Massachusetts an inclusive, affordable, and competitive place for workers, residents, and businesses to call home. So thank you very much.
COMERFORD - Thank you so much, JD. Thank you to Ed. We have a question from rep Kasner.
KASSNER - I didn't think I'd be first. Thank you so much for your testimony and also for25309 recognizing25309 that, you know, where we are in education is a big contributor to our economic strength in the Commonwealth. You answered my first question as to kind of what are the most effective programs or the programs and policies that contribute to that strength. But my second question is, we talk about co-ops and internships, but if you can just say a few words about the kind of government business partnership in that workforce development and, you know, we're a strong state. We are worried about the uncertainties in the federal government, but just kind of we're talk we've talked a lot about education from, early education through, through through high school and college. But kind of meeting25351 in that space, from25353 the business side. Can you talk a little bit about that relationship? Yeah. And25357 how we can we can work to strengthen25359 those connections.
CHESLOFF - Yeah. So I think there are 2 ways that we engage in this. And is Ed still here to help answer questions? Okay. So, Ed, feel free to correct me where I'm wrong. But there are 2 ways that we engage. 1 is through the education secretariat, and that's a lot through some of what I mentioned today. But the other 1 is through labor and workforce development, which also does a series of pipeline activities around25386 they they do a lot of work on apprenticeship as our good friend the secretary champions. We also do work there on skills-based hiring, which is another really interesting initiative. Right? Do you not think every job requires a 4-year degree? Right? And this and if, there are jobs that are requiring a 4 year degree, are you leaving a whole population of folks out? So I would say a combination of the education secretariat and the labor and workforce development secretariat is our primary connection in these public-private partnerships. Ed, what did I miss?
LAMBERT25423 -25423 No.25423 I think you answered it well, and, of course, we're all in a coalition with some other youth-serving and social justice organizations interacting pretty rarely with the workforce skills cabinet. That would also include Secretary of Economic Affairs Yvonne Howe, and they've all been very responsive.
COMERFORD- Thank you so much. NHHS on the workforce skills cabinet. Right. Which is Yes.
SPEAKER32 - Yes. Sorry. Yep.
SPEAKER4 - Representative Pease.
PEASE - Thank you, Madam Chair. Chair Duffy and I appreciate the fine job you've done today. And I25460 gotta say I believe that both maybe you and JD, I'm not sure, came out to an elementary school right after COVID with the tutoring program to demo to me. That was pretty impressive how the connection between somebody remote online, but they had with that child and they were able to connect with them. And I'm glad that that is gonna be, hopefully going forward further to get back some of that reading that we lost. So I just wanted to say that, and as a former staff member, I can see that that answer about the federal was very, very well done and politically done.
SPEAKER21 - Thank you.
COMERFORD- I have a question about the education training fund. So Nate McKinnon, when he spoke about community college funding, he noted that like the CTE, education training fund is for non-degree-bearing courses that don't get federal aid. And it25516 has been the subject of a lot of conversation in the legislature where the community colleges understanding that free community college is happening says, hey, look, there's a25524 whole world of students who don't25526 want an associate's degree or a 4 year degree. They wanna get a technical certificate and go right into the workforce. And I wonder, you know, and so the ask, I believe, is $10,000,000, and it was last year, and it was funded by ARPA dollars, which dried up. I wonder if you all would be able to comment, not on the program specifically, but just on that as an additional piece of work at the community college level.
LAMBERT - Senator, if you'd allow me and JD can jump in on this. You know, you and your colleagues had the foresight to follow up the investment with free community college, you know, with a commission that looks at a number of these issues around affordability and quality. And this has been a sustained part of that conversation, and I think justifiably. The fund you mentioned certainly is important from a transition perspective to keep that going. We see, through our own surveys, students and families increasingly wanting that skills-based certificate or credential. And certainly, their aspiration to advance themselves is, you know, no less than those seeking a degree if they wanna continue to go forward with a career. So, we do think that there there will need to be some more permanent permanent sustainable solutions going forward, but the legislature has has done it itself well by, funding that fund and considering that the nature and the evolution of higher education, is ongoing, and a greater focus on skills and skill acquisition related to careers, is really what's gonna lead to some great success for students.
CHESLOFF - Yeah. I would only add. I remember you talked to me about this at the hearing last year. I think we had a conversation about this. You know, I think about as I think about the talent challenge, 1 of the strategies to address that is to get these untapped talent sources that are here off the sidelines and into the workforce. And there's a whole variety. I mean, 1 thing we didn't even talk about today was ESOL, right, which is a huge barrier to a large population of folks who can't access the workforce. They English language learning. This, to me, fits in that bucket. Right? How are we providing tools for folks who otherwise are disconnected to meet the talent challenge that has been exacerbated by out-migration and demographic trends? And so this is something we supported last year, and, yeah, I think it's a great tool.
COMERFORD - Thank you very much. Any other questions? I don't see any, Ed, for you online and, JD, you're here in person. Let me just say again, the fact that you're bringing it on home in this hearing, and that you are so integral not only to the business well-being of the Commonwealth, but the education well-being is just actually quite inspiring, that you 2 are25714 so invested and so central, to the investments that the state and the administration are making, and the legislature, of course. So thank you so much for your time and your patience and forbearance.
LAMBERT - Thank you, madam chair. Thank you to the25726 members25726 of the committee. Much appreciated.
COMERFORD - And with that, friends, I'm gonna gavel us out with thanks to the court officers. Thank you to LIS. Thank you to UMass. UMass has taken this to the next level, and thank you to this committee. The hearing is adjourned.
SPEAKER22 - And thank you to Chair Comerford.