of Bridgewater to East Bridgewater in
Funding Education
August 30, 2004
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Joseph Gillis Jr.
You can do something!
There is an email going around (been forwarded to me a couple of times by people seeking my comments) concerning how well a town like East Bridgewater funds education since they are showing a figure in excess of $15M in their budget, while Bridgewater only provides about $14M to B-R.
What follows are discussion points for the details. Basically, East Bridgewater receives State money for education and includes it in its calculations for Education budgets. Bridgewater, as part of a region, does not receive the State money. That money is sent directly to the B-R Region. So, Bridgewater does not count the money as an education expense. There is nothing hidden or wrong with the two different ways of accounting - I am only trying to describe in detail how these are different. (added 9/13/04, in response to emails for clarification)
(a) While I have not seen the latest East Bridgewater budget in detail, in past reports money from the State (Chapter 70, etc..) is included as Town Revenue. In FY04, MA provided $9,132,173 in Chapter 70 funds for 2409 students. For a single town school system, this money is then included in the Expense Appropriation for the Town. In a Regional District like B-R, neither Bridgewater nor Raynham show their share of the $18,751,051 [5918 students] as income. This means that neither town shows this money as an expense. For both Bridgewater and Raynham, the Expense item is their money alone while other communities include the "pass-thru" State money. This gives the false impression of how the towns are actually funding education.
(b) Take a look at the State Ch. 70 money for FY04 (most recent finalized), continuing with the East Bridgewater comparison. The State provides East Bridgewater with $3,791 per student to assist in education. The State provides B-R with $3,163 per student to assist in providing education to our Regional students. East Bridgewater gets $628 more per student to educate their children. For FY03, EB received $8,908,542 for 2427 students, or $3,671/student. In B-R, $18,684,258 for 5860 students, or $3,188/student.
(c) Going further with the East Bridgewater theme, even with the increased funds from the state, according to the year-end FY03 analysis, East Bridgewater averaged $6,570 per student. Bridgewater-Raynham beat that with an average $6,722 per student. Bridgewater and Raynham are therefore catching up on the deficiency created by State funding, and then some - making sure that we are spending more per student.
(d) Therefore, both Bridgewater and Raynham as towns are providing $3,534 per student for education. The town of East Bridgewater is providing $2,899 per student. All of the rhetoric about how Bridgewater is not providing enough funds for education now becomes a little less clear.
(e) And as far as the percentage of Town Revenue dedicated to Education, certain areas of Income and Expense need to be excluded from Bridgewater calculations - the Enterprise Funds. For instance, the Golf Enterprise Fund, at around $2 million should most assuredly be removed when trying to determine these percentages. Golf must appear on the Town financial reports, since it is part of the Town, but both that revenue and expense should be "adjusted out" prior to making this type of percentage analysis.
