Student Enrollment Shapes New School Budget System

BOSTON, U.S. – In an effort to crack down on deficit, rising costs and over-spending, the Boston Public School system is instituting a new budget system this upcoming year. Instead of allotting certain amounts of money to each school, they plan to institute a "weighted student budget."

Proposed by the Boston School Committee, this would give Boston Public Schools a more flexible budget. Instead of basing the schools’ budgets on the employment of teachers, schools will instead receive money based on their student enrollment. Each student will have a set amount (the older the student, the lesser the base fund) upon which extra funds will be added should the student be dubbed "at risk", have special needs, come from an impoverished background, or attend a vocational-technical program.

The goal of this new program is to efficiently aid "at risk" and special needs students while still staying within the boundaries of the budget. Allotting the budget and using extra money to address more critical cases will also prevent these students from hindering their classmates’ ability to learn, or their own ability to learn in a classroom.

Some are pleased by this new change. Roslindale parent Lynn Richardson said, "I think it will have a positive effect on education because the money will target students who need extra help in school. It’s a better way to use the budget.”

While some believe that this new allocation of funds will improve the quality of education and help struggling BPS students, others are not so optimistic.
“It seems like this new system won’t provide enough money to a smaller school with less students,” said Maria Abercrombie, a West Roxbury parent of two. “Schools with a small "at risk" or disabled population or a small student body won’t receive as much funding – this doesn’t seem fair.”

William Kilpatrick, a Roslindale parent, said that the new budget will “give smaller schools more funding to provide for students.” The majority of smaller schools are anticipating a budget increase, which will allow them to provide  better education and extra-curricular programs for their students. In addition, the additonal money will allow schools to specifically focus on “at risk” students.

With rising costs of supplies, transportation, staff and upkeep, the Boston Public School system has found itself facing more budget cuts every year just to provide the bare necessities. In 2011, it was 8 million below its  proposed budget – a sign that a new, innovative budget program was direly needed.