State Budget News

State House

Highlights from the FY26 House Committee on Ways and Means budget

K-12 Education
  • A $460 million increase in Chapter 70 funding in comparison to the FY25 budget, including $150 per pupil in minimum aid, an increase from $75 per pupil in the governor’s FY26 budget, but less than what is needed given inflation and demands on schools.
  • An increase of $181.5 million for the Special Education Circuit Breaker, which appears to represent full funding of the current formula. We are working to improve the formula to further increase state reimbursements.
  • Green School Works is funded at $20 million, which is $10 million more than current FY25 funding. In the Fair Share supplemental budget, the House also had proposed another $10 million in FY25 funding.
  • Universal school meals are funded once again, with the Ways and Means budget providing an additional $20 million over the governor’s FY26 budget. An additional $10 million in Fair Share surplus funds is dedicated to the program to supplement FY25 appropriations.
  • Literacy Launch is funded at $15 million, which is $10 million less than the governor’s FY26 proposal.
  • Regional School Transportation would get $22.7 million more than the current FY25 funding. This is projected to cover 95% of the costs, an improvement from previous years, but we are advocating for 100% coverage.
  • Rural school aid is funded at $7.5 million, an $8.5 million reduction compared to FY25 and the governor’s FY26 budget. This item historically has received increases in the Senate’s budget.
  • The budget creates a task force to examine vocational-technical education program admissions and make recommendations. Under the House's proposal, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education would be prohibited from issuing or amending regulations related to these admission policies until the task force releases its recommendations.

With Washington slashing federal funding and aiming to dismantle public education and other bedrocks of our democracy, it’s crucial that Massachusetts address the growing fiscal crisis in our public schools and colleges by providing significant increases in funding.

Fortunately, the Fair Share Amendment that MTA members fought so hard to enact is generating more revenue than had been projected – almost $2.5 billion this year alone. Now, we as a Commonwealth have the resources we need to provide all of our students with a great public education that will allow them to thrive.

The budget proposal of the House Committee on Ways and Means takes some initial steps in addressing the severe fiscal crisis that is undermining the capacity of schools across Massachusetts. We are especially pleased with the $150-per pupil amount proposed in minimum aid, up from $75 in the governor’s budget. This is something for which we have long advocated and will help address funding issues in middle-income districts. However, we still have a long way to go to address the crisis facing our schools and colleges.

The bullet points list some of the noteworthy education items in the House Ways and Means budget proposal. All education appropriations and comparisons to the FY26 governor’s proposal and the FY25 budget can be found on this page.

Higher Education
The budget contains modest increases in Higher Education line items, but not enough to begin to address the crisis in higher education funding. Proposals include:
  • An increase of $21.7 million in state university campus funding compared to FY25.
  • An increase of $23 million in community college campus funding compared to the FY25 budget.
  • An $80 million increase for the University of Massachusetts system, compared to the FY25 budget.
  • New funding of $10 million for University of Massachusetts SUCCESS grant program.
  • Level funding of the MassGrant Plus, MassReconnect and MassEducate scholarship programs.
  • Rejection of the governor’s plan to increase the share of health costs paid by long-term employees and retirees.
Other Priorities/Outside Sections
  • A new program for immigrant legal services is funded at $5 million.
  • Auto-enrollment in the state SMART Plan (a 457 retirement plan) for new employees (and a local option for municipal employees), which is an MTA legislative priority.
  • The budget provides the typical 3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) on the first $13,000 in pension benefits for retired members of the state and teachers’ retirement systems.
FY26 State Budget Proposals

MTA president told legislators: 'We need to do more than just play defense'

Ways and Means Hearing

Page urged legislators to use Fair Share Amendment funds in FY26 budget

Page emphasized the need to ensure students do not lose access to important services and programs in the wake of funding cuts related to changes in how the U.S. Department of Education operates and how other federal agencies function that support public education.

“We all have an obligation to defend public education,” Page said.

Panel with Page, Liberatore begins at four hours and 29 minutes into the hearing.

Watch the Hearing Read Letter with MTA Budget Demands

Read testimony delivered to the Joint Ways and Means Committee

The MTA is calling on state budget writers to be prepared to use Fair Share Amendment funds and capture more corporate tax revenue to defend public education from anticipated federal funding cuts and to support financially struggling school districts.

MTA President Max Page testified Monday before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means, which held a public hearing at UMass Amherst on education and local aid spending. Marc Liberatore, co-president of the Massachusetts Society of Professors, which represents faculty members and librarians at the university, joined Page on a panel addressing the committee.

The hearing was one of several being held across the state to consider the state’s fiscal year 2026 budget.

Many speakers told the legislative panel that the formula used to calculate state aid to school districts is inadequate, especially when it comes to covering the costs of special education and transportation. Public colleges and universities also are scrambling to mitigate any impacts from cuts in federal funding sources.

Page said the dismantling of the federal Department of Education by the Trump administration will translate into less federal funding for public education at the local level.

“The dangers public education face now are unprecedented, and we need to do more than just play defense,” Page said.

Read More 

An analysis of the governor's proposed Fy26 budget

Governor Maura Healey’s budget proposes modest increases in funding for preK-12 schools and one major initiative in higher education.

Thanks largely to funding from the Fair Share Amendment, the budget proposal has some good news on public school funding. The funding increases, however, only begin to address the severe fiscal crisis facing our schools and some are new initiatives that we will continue to evaluate to determine if they are likely to be helpful or could be problematic.

  • The proposal includes a $420 million increase in Chapter 70. This is significantly larger than last year’s increase of $317 million. That is primarily because inflation is higher, not because of a policy change by the governor. Of the $420 million increase, $225 million comes through Fair Share funds.
  • Minimum aid is funded at $75 per pupil. The governor proposed $30 per pupil last year and the final budget included $104.
  • Regional transportation reimbursement is increased to 95%, and the appropriation increases by $22.6 million.
  • The Special Education Circuit Breaker is fully funded. In FY25 the transportation component for this program was significantly underfunded, at 44%.
  • Literacy Launch, the state’s early literacy initiative, is funded at $25 million, an increase from $20 million in FY25.
  • The governor also proposed spending Fair Share surplus funds on several preK-12 initiatives: $32 million for “reimagining high school,” prioritizing college and career readiness; $75 million for capital/grants for career technical education schools; $30 million for adult basic education/ESOL; $50 million for the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative; $25 million for high-dosage tutoring, or small-group or one-one-one tutoring, to help students learn to read. It appears that those allocations could be spent over several years.

Read MTA leadership's response to the governor's FY26 budget

"Given the overall wealth of the state – if it were a nation, Massachusetts would be the fourth wealthiest per capita in the world – and its $9 billion in rainy day funds, there is no justification for the proposed cuts to public services that support the health and well-being of its residents."

read

In higher education spending, there is one major new initiative, continued funding of major victories from the last two years, and some reductions.

  • The governor’s budget proposal allocates $125 million from Fair Share funds each year, which will support $2.5 billion to $3 billion in capital funding for infrastructure improvements across public higher education campuses.
  • The budget maintains funding for free community college and the major expansions of MassGrant Plus, to make higher education more affordable for low- and middle-income students. It also maintains funding for SUCCESS, wraparound support services for students at both community colleges and state universities.
  • Campus appropriations were generally up by at least 6% to 8%, reflecting the costs of collective bargaining agreements and the FY25 formula grant amounts being rolled into campus line items.
  • The governor does not fund the line items that distribute additional aid, through a formula, to community colleges and state universities. That is the way increases in funding are generally provided to those colleges and universities. In FY25 community colleges received $3.76 million and state universities, $7.31 million.
  • Tomorrow’s Teachers — a program that provides generous scholarships to students at public colleges and universities who commit to teach in our public schools, and debt relief for public school educators — is essentially level funded at $2.5 million.
  • The budget also includes several tax policy proposals that will raise state revenue, including capping deductions for charitable contributions, which generates $164 million; closing loopholes to raise $145 million; and subjecting candy to the state’s sales tax, which raises another $25 million.

    The budget also proposes increasing the share of health care premiums paid by longtime and retired state employees. Currently, employees hired after FY03 pay 25% of their premiums, while employees hired before that pay 20%. Retired employees pay between 10% and 20% of their premiums, depending on their retirement date. The budget proposes that all employees and retirees would instead pay 25 p% of their health care premiums.

    State Budget Resources
    Fair Share Amendment

    Learn how the revenues from this commonsense surtax– passed by voters in 2022 – are benefiting public education and transportation.