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The Fiscal Crisis in Rural Schools

Can it be fixed?

February 28th, 2025

MASC Learning Lunch

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One Essential Idea

It costs more per student to provide a basic education in small districts than in larger ones.

District of

<1,300

students

Costs 16.7% more per pupil

22.7% more if regional

District of

>1,300

students

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Who we are:

Co-chairs of MASC’s Rural Schools Committee

Martha Thurber

(she/her)

Chair, Mohawk Trail Regional School Committee
Lawyer

Jessica Corwin

(she/her)

Chair, Sunderland School Committee
Member, Frontier Regional School Committee
Teacher in Springfield

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Map and data from 2019

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Today’s agenda

History
The challenges facing rural schools
Some proposed solutions (and related barriers)
Shared concerns & the rural schools bill
The MASC Rural Schools Committee
Q&A

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History of rural school studies & advocacy in Massachusetts

2006: Rural Schools Coalition established
2017: Updating the Structure & Finance of Massachusetts Regional School Districts
2018: DESE Fiscal Conditions in Rural School Districts
2018: Improving Efficiencies Relative to Student Transportation
2019: First Rural Aid in state budget. SOA establishes Commission.
2021: Public Infrastructure in Western Massachusetts
2022: Special Commission on the Fiscal Health of Rural Schools
2023: An Act to Provide a Sustainable Future for Rural Schools introduced
2024: MASC Rural Schools Committee established

Reports published

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What is Rural Aid?

Line item in state budget since 2019
Additional education aid for towns and regional districts that qualify based on income level and student population sparsity.
Qualifying districts are sifted into 3 tiers of priority, with sparsest density districts receiving the largest portion of aid.

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Challenges facing rural districts: population decline

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Challenges facing rural districts: aging population

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Challenges facing rural districts: declining enrollment

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Challenges facing rural districts:

Small property tax base, no growth

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Challenges facing rural districts:

Data outliers skew state aid calculations

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Challenges facing rural districts:

Per-pupil funding doesn’t work.

“The fundamental challenge for

rural school districts is that when

student enrollment declines…

the costs of operating these schools

do not decline at the same rate.”

– Rural Schools Commission

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Example from rural schools report

Rural School

200 students

2 classes per grade K-6

14 homeroom teachers

(~14 students per classroom)

Suburban School

300 students

2 classes per grade K-6

14 homeroom teachers

(~21 students per classroom)

Foundation budget $3,310 per pupil

Assumed total cost:

200 x $3,390 = $662,000

Assumed total cost:

300 x $3,310 = $993,000

Foundation budget difference:

$331,000 or 33% less for exactly the same number of teachers.

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Challenges facing rural districts:

Small schools cannot achieve efficiencies of scale.

FY20 Average Per Pupil Expenditures for Low Enrollment K-12 District
	Districts under 1,300 Students	Districts over 1,300 Students	Percent Difference
Administration	$748.30	529.22	41.3%
Teaching/Teaching Services	$7,773.62	$7,522.24	3.3%
Pupil Services	$1,776.17	$1,457.09	21.9%
Operations/Maintenance	$1,413.69	$1,247.48	13.3%
Insurance, Retirement, Other	$3,367.89	$2,879.90	16.9%
Total In-District Expenditures	$17,834.38	$16,146.24	10.5%

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Challenges facing rural districts: Transportation

Lack of adequate funding for

Extraordinary costs associated with larger regionalized districts
“Late buses” that would enable equitable access for all students to participate in sports and after-school activities
Transporting students to field trips, internships, work-study, and dual enrollment opportunities.

This is an equity issue!

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How has the SOA affected rural districts?

	No. Rural Aid districts	% receiving minimum aid
FY21	51	78%
FY22	68	89%
FY23	67	63%
FY24	68	71%
FY25	67	85%

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What does the inflation factor mean to rural schools?

Welcome, Tracy!

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Rural towns are in crisis.

Rising education costs mean cuts everywhere else.

Towns are approaching the levy ceiling.

Schools and towns have little left to cut

and dwindling, if any, reserves.

Student needs are expanding.

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Proposed solutions

What have rural towns already done?

In-house/External feasibility studies
Regionalized, closed community schools (where politically possible)
Shared services like superintendency unions
Reduced staff
Cut programming (arts, languages, sports, electives)
Opened to School Choice
Tight lid on ALL expenses

Rural districts pay 18 of the 20 lowest average teachers’ salaries.

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Proposed solutions: Regionalization

Roadblocks

Lack of resources to fund regionalization studies/implementation
Current size: further regionalization may be impossible. Some students already spend more than an hour on the bus in each direction.
Divergent contracts: pay scales, benefits must reconcile upward upon merger
Politics: Annual Town Meeting voters want to protect local control, schools as critical community centers

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Proposed solutions: Legislative

Rural Aid

Thirty states have some sort of Rural Aid program.

Piecemeal legislation to address various elements, or the Rural Schools bill (HD.3619/SD.2178). More on this later.
Inclusion of a rurality/sparsity factor in the next overhaul of Chapter 70 funding formulas.

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Shared Concerns: Rural issues are also every district’s issues!

Special Education funding reform
Full funding of Circuit Breaker
Charter school tuition reimbursement
End one-Bidder Transportation Contracts (2023 MASC Delegate Assembly resolution)
Fully fund transportation: regional, homeless students, out-of-district, vocational, foster children
Adequate workforce, especially Special Education

Most of these issues are covered in the Rural Schools bill.

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The Rural Schools Bill (HD.3619/SD.2178)

Contains provisions for

Out-of-district transportation funding
Foster care transportation
Special Education Finance Commission
Out-of-district tuition reimbursement
Strengthening the pipeline of Special Education teachers
Rural Aid, Declining Enrollment Fund
Fully funding regional transportation
Equitable geographical representation on BESE
DESE examination of regulations as they relate to rural schools
Financial & practical support for regionalization

Rep. Natalie Blais Sen. Jo Comerford

Deerfield Northampton

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The Rural Schools Bill (HD.3619/SD.2178)

Currently co-sponsored by

Senators: Brady, Comerford, Oliveira
Representatives: Berthiaume, Blais, Connolly, Domb, Duffy, Elliott, Flanagan, Hawkins, Higgins, Howard, Marsi, Sabadosa, Sena, Uyterhoeven

This is the re-introduction of the bill.

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MASC’s Rural Schools Committee

Established May 2024
23 members representing 23 school districts from the Berkshires to the Cape
Current priorities

FY26 Rural Aid appropriation
The rural schools bill
Outreach and education

focused on legislators

representing rural districts

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Learn more at ruralschoolsma.org and tinyurl.com/ruralma

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Q & A