Section summary
The school formula delivered equity and left small and regional towns behind. Chapter 70 aid per pupil rose 29% after inflation in cities and fell 1% in the 118 regional-member and non-operating towns. Over five years the state funded regional school transportation $65.5 million below the statutory 100%, a rate that is subject to appropriation. Rural school aid reached at best one-third of the $60 million a year the Special Commission on Rural Schools recommended in 2022.
Massachusetts cities and towns put $8.38 billion of local money into their schools in FY2026 because the state said they must. That is the required local contribution under Chapter 70, the largest single obligation on most municipal budgets. The state’s side, Chapter 70 aid, is $7.36 billion.
Over ten years the state’s share grew faster. After inflation, aid rose 18% from FY2017 to FY2026, required local contributions rose 5%, and enrollment fell 4%.
The Student Opportunity Act of 2019 steered that growth to need, as it was written to do. Of the increase in Chapter 70 aid from FY2020 to FY2026, 78% went to the fifth of districts with the highest share of low-income students. That is a delivered reform.
The other side of a formula that steers new money to need is that most districts sit at the floor. In FY2026, 244 of 374 districts received minimum aid. By town type the decade looks like this:
The 118 regional-member and non-operating towns received $48.9 million less inflation-adjusted aid in FY2026 than in FY2017, while their required contribution rose $14.5 million. Some of this is the design working: these towns have fewer low-income students and fast-falling enrollment. But a district that loses a fifth of its pupils still runs the same buildings and bus routes.
Who pays
Required contributions take a median 2.6% of household income statewide. No community is asked for more than 82.5% of its foundation budget, and 193 of 351 towns sit at that cap. For most of them the formula would ask more if it could.
The common complaint in resort towns is that the property half of the formula charges them for second homes whose owners send no children to the schools. The data support that for a handful of towns, not as a rule. In the 31 towns where more than 30% of housing is seasonal, 30 are at the cap, and in most of them residents’ income alone would put them there. The cap, not the property weight, sets their share. Their median required contribution is 2.0% of household income, below the statewide median.
Earmarks, counting everything placed, and competitive grants were tested against school burden, and they show no consistent pattern. Discretionary money neither compensates for school burden nor punishes it.
The cost of being small
The foundation budget assumes the same cost per pupil for a district of 150 as for one of 15,000. Operating districts with fewer than 300 pupils spent 1.93 times their foundation budget in FY2025. Districts of 10,000 or more spent 1.15 times. The local taxpayer covers the difference.
The state has two programs aimed at that gap, and neither is funded at the level set in statute or recommended. State law sets reimbursement for regional districts at 100% of eligible transportation costs, subject to appropriation. From FY2021 through FY2025 the state paid between 80% and 96%, $65.5 million below the statutory 100%.
The Special Commission on Rural Schools recommended $60 million a year in rural school aid in 2022. The state distributed $4 million in FY2022, $16 million in FY2026 and $20 million in FY2027. The best year reached one-third of the recommendation.
In Berkshire County, foundation enrollment fell 9.9% over the decade, against 3.7% statewide. Pittsfield’s aid rose 26% after inflation. The other 31 towns received 7.1% less.