Archived Information
School Finance: Chapter 70 Program
Chapter 70 Aid and Net School Spending Requirements for FY06
July 5, 2005
The FY06 state budget includes a $105.6 million increase in Chapter 70 aid for public school districts. Aid rises from $3.183 billion in FY05 to $3.289 billion in FY06, a 3.32 percent increase.
The following links provide summary charts showing proposed foundation budgets, Chapter 70 aid, required local contributions and net school spending requirements for school districts  and regional school members . The detailed calculations are available by downloading the formula spreadsheet .
Summary
Foundation budgets rise by an average of 3.79 percent. Statewide foundation enrollment decreased from 959,287 on October 1, 2003 to 955,493 on October 1, 2004, a decline of 0.4 percent. The annual inflation adjustment is 3.74 percent.
Because of the new charter tuition rate law, the low-income increments for pupils at Commonwealth charter schools are now credited toward their sending districts' foundation budgets. This results in $6.7 million in additional Chapter 70 foundation aid for 43 districts. Cities and towns' municipal revenue growth factors raise their required local contributions by an average of 5.18 percent.
Chapter 70 "foundation aid" fills the gap between each district's foundation budget and its required local contribution. Foundation aid accounts for $2.995 or 91 percent of the entire aid distribution.
The remaining $293 million of the aid distribution ensures that every district receives an increase in aid of at least $50 per pupil.
This is the second year of a four-year phase in of a new methodology that allocates communities' total required contributions among the school districts to which they belong. The goal is to equalize the contribution as a percentage of foundation budget for each of a community's local and regional districts. For six non-operating districts (towns that are fully regionalized or that rely upon tuitioning to educate their pupils) Chapter 70 is capped at the districts' foundation budgets.
Questions about the Chapter 70 program should be addressed to either:
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