Chapter 70 is a complex calculation. The MA Department of Education has a number of links with information available here. If you download the Excel file from the DOE page, you can review the numbers shown here.
This is what I learn from the Chapter 70 information:
- Chapter 70 is meant to assist each community to provide for a proper education for their students.
- Recognizing that Prop 2 1/2 restricts local communities from increasing their revenues to meet the expected Department of Education (DOE) requirements under the Educational Reform Act, Chapter 70 was created.
- Chapter 70 calculations are complex to account for communities across the commonwealth and apply the formulas consistently.
When you get into the actual calculations you find:
- The basic formula says that 29% of the communities real estate valuation (from fiscal year 2006 in this case) plus 1.6% of the total income for the community (from fiscal 2004 income tax records in this case) equals what should be the local communities contribution to their portion of the educational spending to meet the state requirements.
- The calculation for FY 2008 says Franklin has the wherewithal to provide $30 million toward the education (number highlighted in yellow).
The DOE calculates that Franklin could/should spend $30 million to educate our own students.
What has the town just voted to spend from our own pockets? $26 million (without the override) or $28 million (with the override).
You can slice it any number of ways but bottom line, it seems like Franklin is pay less than it should and getting a whole lot for what it does spend.
If there are any Chapter 70 experts who want to share their insights on this, please drop me an email or a comment.
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