Lawmakers on the Education Committee are aiming to put forward a bill next month overhauling the state’s school funding formula, the panel’s Senate chair said Thursday as teachers, students and other advocates descended on the State House to continue the push for reform.
The committee held a hearing in March on various proposals to rework the formula, and advocates have been keeping the pressure on legislators to pass a bill this year. Bills before the committee respond to a problem laid out by a state commission in 2015: the current formula underestimates the cost of education by $1 billion or more annually by inadequately accounting for expenses associated with employee health care, special education and teaching students who are learning English or come from low-income families.