SEN.

CHANG-DÍAZ’S STATEMENT:

In tonight’s State of the Commonwealth address, Governor Baker ignored the central issue facing all
schools across our state: Foundation Budget reforms and our broken Chapter 70 system. We spent the
last four years arguing about issues that don’t affect most students – and it’s time to get back to basics.
To make a serious investment in education we must fix the broken Ch. 70 formula. It’s called the
“foundation” for a reason.

Gov. Baker’s proposal of new Ch. 70 aid for the coming year is just plain inadequate for the job. As an
acclaimed manager, the Governor should know that. I’m certain the Governor is aware of the economic
concept of inflation – and his proposal barely keeps up with healthcare inflation alone. In fact, his budget
proposal would leave K-12 funding down more than 5% since 2002, when adjusted for inflation. That
means more cuts to classrooms, in reality.

We need to have higher expectations for ourselves.

For reference, here is a graphic illustrating the funding levels when adjusted for inflation, since the
Education Reform Act of 1993:

And here is a map of all the school districts (50 in total) that have passed resolutions calling for the
Foundation Budget Review Commission’s recommendations to be implemented: