Education budget war heats up; Legislature to decide on $223 million hike
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Clive McFarlane, Telegram & Gazette Staff
February 21, 2005
The state Supreme Judicial Court's decision on Tuesday not to force Massachusetts to spend additional dollars on public education has shifted the battle over adequate public education funding to the state Legislature.
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"To the extent we are holding districts to higher standards, and we are asking them to do so with dwindling resources, it is going to put tremendous pressure on those districts," he said.
"You cannot raise accountability expectation without providing additional capacity building and financial support."
But just how much it will cost to get students to achieve higher state and federal education standards is not easily determined, according to Mr. Reville.
What is clear is that if the increasingly higher standards create hardships in school districts, this could strengthen the hands of the plaintiffs waiting to bring back a funding inadequacy case to the courts, he said.
"If the plaintiffs prevail in all these cases, it forces the recognition in the Legislature that this (adequate funding) could become an open-ended invoice in perpetuity, and this could cause a retreat on standards," he said.
Mr. Reville noted, for example, that on the same day the SJC made its ruling, state Commissioner of Education David Driscoll was urging the state Board of Education to hold off raising the passing level on the MCAS exams.
"I believe that was a tacit recognition of the linkage between resources and accountability," Mr. Reville said.