On Thursday, July 18, the Budget Conference Committee released its FY25 budget proposal, which was passed by both chambers the following day.
Within Chapter 70 state aid, the Conference Committee has adopted the House $104 per pupil minimum amount, rather than the Senate’s higher $110 per pupil amount.
Both chambers funded another year of school meals; the Conference Committee budget uses the Senate’s lesser $170M to fund this program for this coming year; this does not represent full reimbursement to districts.
The special education circuit breaker was adopted for FY25 at an amount higher than both chambers, at $493M. Charter tuition reimbursement ($199M), regional transportation reimbursement ($99.5M), and homeless transportation reimbursement ($26.7M) were the same in both chambers and were adopted at those levels. The Conference Committee did fund non-residential vocational transportation at the $1M adopted in the Senate budget.
The rural school assistance funding was passed as a compromise between House and Senate at $16M, $1M higher than last year. METCO is funded in the conference committee budget at $29.9M. After and out-of-school grants is funded at a higher $11.5M.
Free school meals; the minimum per pupil increase of $74 over the required $30; a mental and behavioral health grant of $5M; as well as several higher education efforts and further transportation spending are funded through Fair Share funds in the FY25 budget.
The early literacy initiative proposed by the Governor is funded at a compromise number of $20M.
We will update you when Governor Healey takes action on the budget.