Of all the bills that stalled out during the Massachusetts Legislature’s just-completed formal session, perhaps the one creating the most heartburn is the failure to reach a deal on overhauling the state’s 25-year-old education funding system.
Education advocates, parents and teachers unions had hoped to revamp the funding formula — known as the “foundation budget” — a key element of the landmark 1993 Massachusetts education reform law meant to smooth out educational disparities between wealthier communities and poorer ones.
To address the issue, the state set up a Foundation Budget Review Commission, which found the original formula underestimated education costs by up to $2 billion every year. The commission made a series of recommendations to overhaul and update the foundation budget in a report issued three years ago.