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Dear ,

I am writing in support of increasing state aid for education to our local, rural schools—particularly in three areas that have a minimum impact on the state budget but would significantly assist our district in maintaining education without bankrupting our small towns. These three areas are Regional Transportation Reimbursement, the Small and Rural Schools Initiative, and the R.E.D. Circuit Breaker Initiative.

The burden of financially supporting the schools in our communities has become a problem for our small, rural towns. State aid for our district has fallen significantly for several years so the responsibility for the additional cost of education has landed on the shoulders of town property taxpayers. Every year for the past three years, the decision to potentially close and consolidate three of our five elementary schools has been brought before us at town meetings. Although the school budget is rising in tandem with local town budgets, the towns’ educational assessments are double digit due to insufficient state aid to education for our district. As taxpayers we are tapped out. As a community, we just can’t continue to afford to keep our local schools, the “heart” of our communities, open without help from the state. If we close the doors to our schools, there would be a one time minimal saving, our young elementary children would have to be bussed further (some for well over an hour) to another Hilltown school, and class sizes would increase with a potential for educational fallout that would be tragic for our students.

The most promising initiative is the R.E.D. circuit breaker. As you know this proposal includes 19 school districts in the state that meet its stringent qualifying requirements. These requirements are that the district be Rural (defined as less than 100 students per square mile—Gateway has only 6.9), that the district be Economically challenged (defined as having a state target aid percentage greater than 50%--Gateway’s is 55.3%) and that the district have Declining enrollment over the past five years (defined as greater than 6.5%--Gateway’s enrollment has declined 13.5% during this time). These factors—when combined with the small tax base of relatively poor towns, nearly all based upon residential properties—have made Gateway reach a critical tipping point: loss of revenue leads to loss of educational programs and services, students elect to choice out of district or be home-schooled which leads to further reductions in revenue and a continuation of the death spiral for public education in our communities. With district costs increasing across the board and actual per pupil educational aid from the state decreasing from $4,274 in FY02 to $4,128 in FY07, it is little wonder that our towns have reached the fiscal limits on being able to support an effective educational system.

With approximately 1 student per mile of bus routes in a district of over 205 square miles, transportation costs are understandably high. As an incentive to regionalize, the state promised to reimburse regional transportations costs at 100%--unfortunately this has not a promise that the state has kept consistently over the years. Given the impact that this item has on the affordability of education in regional districts, the minimal impact this has on the overall state budget, and the intent of the original legislation, this should be an area that the state fully funds each year.

Small and rural schools also face well documented issues concerning the inequity of the state funding formula for education because of the small populations and large land mass of many of these schools. It is our understanding that the Chapter 70 Formula works effectively on a minimum student population of approximately 2500 students, including a high school of 1300 students. For Gateway, we’d have to combine all of our students, pre-K through 12 in order to meet just the minimum high school numbers. Given the vast distances involved in transporting students under the current district structure, consolidating with another district with similar problems such as Mohawk to gain student numbers makes little sense as the two high schools are well over an hour apart when driving a car. The small and rural schools initiative would provide a funding boost to qualifying school districts that would help alleviate the disparity in efficiency in scale that larger districts enjoy.

We need help to ensure that our ability to offer educational opportunities to our children is not compromised by an inequity in educational funding from the state. From fulfilling prior promises regarding transportation reimbursement to considering ways to adjust the funding formula for small schools and those rural schools qualifying under the R.E.D. circuit breaker formula, it is time for our state elected officials to take action. If the state can make adjustments for increasing enrollment and adjust the funding formula to help urban districts, there is no reason why they can’t make similar adjustments to help our small towns have an education equal to those of most suburban areas.

I appreciate your support of these issues and hope that change is forthcoming in a timely fashion. I would also ask that you remind Governor Patrick of his promises not to forget Western Massachusetts and to make education his top priority.

Sincerely,