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kk GAPE ANN ECONOMICS <br /> 40 River Road <br /> Annisquam Village <br /> Gloucester, 1bLA 01930 <br /> Sandwich School Finance <br /> by Edward lbioscooitch <br /> 1Vauember, 1994 <br /> INTRODUCTION <br /> Sandwich schools have seen explosive enrollment growth in recent years. Despite the <br /> provisions of the school reform law of 1993, spending increases have not kept pace with <br /> rising enrollments and costs. What were the goals of the finance provisions of the reform <br /> law, how do they apply to Sandwich, and what is the outlook for Sandwich enrollments and <br /> expenditures for the rest of the decade? <br /> The School Reform Act of 1993 <br /> The finance portions of the reform law had three objectives: <br /> • AdeTo assure that each student in Massachusetts received an education <br /> supported by an adequate school budget—a budget sufficient to guarantee a <br /> decent education and a budget large enough such that it would be fair to hold <br /> teachers and principals accountable for improved student performance. <br /> • Stability To assure that school expenditure goals kept pace with changes in <br /> inflation and enrollment. <br /> • Fairness To assure that no town was required to make an unreasonably large <br /> local tax effort to achieve school spending goals, and also to assure that available <br /> increases in local tax revenues were shared in a fair manner between school and <br /> municipal purposes. <br /> The Foundation Budget <br /> The mechanism for guaranteeing adequate spending is the foundation budget. A founda- <br /> tion budget is calculated for every school district in the Commonwealth. These calcula- <br /> tions begin with the district's enrollment and apply target class size and staffing ratios to <br /> arrive at desired numbers of teachers, administrators, custodians, and secretaries. The <br />