Just heard Charlie Baker is backing bill for passage of mandatory school,aide for ALL school districts Maybe we should lower override request!

Can you share a link? I don't see anything recent related to that.

The state already provides aide to districts - early last year they were talking about increasing the amount of aide, though it wouldn't have been much for many towns. That bill failed in April. Part of the reason the override is needed because the amount of that state aide plummeted during the recession, and hasn't caught back up.

There was also this in the Free Press online:

With the start of the new year, advocates for revisions to the state’s education funding formula have redoubled their efforts to persuade lawmakers to act in the current legislative session.

As part of that effort, the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents held three simultaneous forums across the state on Tuesday, Jan. 8, arguing that the state’s foundation formula is badly out of date, and education funding is consequently far too low to meet current needs.

At Malden High School, administrators from Brockton, Chelsea, Revere, Salem, and Saugus formed a panel to argue for changes to the state’s funding formula.

http://melrose.wickedlocal.com/news/20190109/north-shore-educators-argue-for-funding-formula-fix


Was Melrose Admin not invited?

That would be great if they can get traction to make that kind of change. Obviously we aren't the only community in the state dealing with these kinds of questions and budgetary problems. I hope the OP is right and baker is on board - though I don't think this early stage push in any way means we shouldn't pass an override - the bill meant to increase funds, however modestly, failed last year, so the state has a history of not a addressing the funding problem.

State Aid has increased every year since 2012. The "State Aid plummeting during the recession" is a common misconception. We received a large spike in 2009 stemming from the Recovery Act (ARRA). This went away over the next couple of years as it was intended to do - it was a one time infusion. The common mistake is to compare recent aid to ARRA years. It helps the story that aid has decreased but is either ignorant or disingenuous.

It may have increased every year since 2012, however it dropped precipitously comparing 2008 to 2013.

http://www.massbudget.org/tool_window.php?loc=local_aid.html#tool

I am measuring Net State Aid. With that in mind I'll stick to my comments above regarding the Recovery Act...normalize it out and you won't see any precipitous decline at all.