Auditor: State should refund communities for unfunded education mandate

A statewide survey conducted by the Division of Local Mandates finds that school districts are projected to spend close to $11.3 million statewide this fiscal year as a result of what State Auditor Suzanne Bump calls an unfunded state mandate.

Due to the state’s participation in a federal program, cities and towns are required to provide transportation and education of some homeless children after they are placed in a different municipality for temporary housing. In two separate analyses conducted last year, the auditor’s office determined the requirement to be an unfunded mandate.

Bump said the state’s decision to participate in the federal program “does require the affected school systems to incur new costs.” The state’s application of the federal McKinney-Vento program requires both the community hosting homeless students and the community from which students originate to share the cost of the students’ transportation.

The survey, conducted by the Division of Local Mandates in the auditor’s office, shows that 33 communities are projected to spend more than $100,000 to meet the requirement.

In fiscal 2012, the division found the following 10 communities faced the highest transportation costs due to the mandate:
Boston: $760,949
Springfield: $562,650
Chicopee: $431,333
Worcester: $425,000
Malden: $396,831
Holyoke: $311,050
New Bedford: $310,000
Brockton: $285,000
Framingham: $225,000
Weymouth: $217,893

Along with the results of this survey, the auditor on Feb. 7 sent a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick and members of the Legislature in which she recommends that lawmakers consider fully funding this mandated cost for fiscal 2012 in a supplemental budget appropriation and provide ongoing reimbursements in future budgets.

“For the cities and towns of the Commonwealth, this plan cuts into their school districts’ overall ability to provide quality education,” Bump said.

The state’s local mandate law (M.G.L. Ch. 29, Sect. 27C) provides that any post-1980 state law or regulation that imposes additional costs upon any municipality must either be fully funded by the state or be subject to local acceptance. The Division of Local Mandates is responsible for determining the local financial impact of proposed or existing state mandates.

While the local mandate law does not apply to federal laws and programs, McKinney-Vento is a program that the state entered voluntarily, inviting the regulations and financial obligations on local school departments, the auditor said.

• Auditor’s letter to governor and Legislature recommending that state cover costs of unfunded mandate (1.2M PDF)
• Homeless student transportation costs, by community (160K PDF)