With Washington slashing federal funding and aiming to dismantle public education and other bedrocks of our democracy, it’s crucial that Massachusetts address the growing fiscal crisis in our public schools and colleges by providing significant increases in funding.

Fortunately, the Fair Share Amendment that MTA members fought so hard to enact is generating more revenue than had been projected – almost $2.5 billion this year alone. Now, we as a Commonwealth have the resources we need to provide all of our students with a great public education that will allow them to thrive.

The budget proposal of the House Committee on Ways and Means takes some initial steps in addressing the severe fiscal crisis that is undermining the capacity of schools across Massachusetts. We are especially pleased with the $150-per pupil amount proposed in minimum aid, up from $75 in the governor’s budget. This is something for which we have long advocated and will help address funding issues in middle-income districts. However, we still have a long way to go to address the crisis facing our schools and colleges.

The bullet points list some of the noteworthy education items in the House Ways and Means budget proposal. All education appropriations and comparisons to the FY26 governor’s proposal and the FY25 budget can be found on this page.

Higher Education

The budget contains modest increases in Higher Education line items, but not enough to begin to address the crisis in higher education funding. Proposals include:

• An increase of $21.7 million in state university campus funding compared to FY25.
• An increase of $23 million in community college campus funding compared to the FY25 budget.
• An $80 million increase for the University of Massachusetts system, compared to the FY25 budget.
• New funding of $10 million for University of Massachusetts SUCCESS grant program.
• Level funding of the MassGrant Plus, MassReconnect and MassEducate scholarship programs.
• Rejection of the governor’s plan to increase the share of health costs paid by long-term employees and retirees.

Other Priorities/Outside Sections

• A new program for immigrant legal services is funded at $5 million.
• Auto-enrollment in the state SMART Plan (a 457 retirement plan) for new employees (and a local option for municipal employees), which is an MTA legislative priority.
• The budget provides the typical 3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) on the first $13,000 in pension benefits for retired members of the state and teachers’ retirement systems.

FY26 State Budget Proposals

Thanks largely to funding from the Fair Share Amendment, the budget proposal has some good news on public school funding. The funding increases, however, only begin to address the severe fiscal crisis facing our schools and some are new initiatives that we will continue to evaluate to determine if they are likely to be helpful or could be problematic.

• The proposal includes a $420 million increase in Chapter 70. This is significantly larger than last year’s increase of $317 million. That is primarily because inflation is higher, not because of a policy change by the governor. Of the $420 million increase, $225 million comes through Fair Share funds.
• Minimum aid is funded at $75 per pupil. The governor proposed $30 per pupil last year and the final budget included $104.
• Regional transportation reimbursement is increased to 95%, and the appropriation increases by $22.6 million.
• The Special Education Circuit Breaker is fully funded. In FY25 the transportation component for this program was significantly underfunded, at 44%.
• Literacy Launch, the state’s early literacy initiative, is funded at $25 million, an increase from $20 million in FY25.
• The governor also proposed spending Fair Share surplus funds on several preK-12 initiatives: $32 million for “reimagining high school,” prioritizing college and career readiness; $75 million for capital/grants for career technical education schools; $30 million for adult basic education/ESOL; $50 million for the Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative; $25 million for high-dosage tutoring, or small-group or one-one-one tutoring, to help students learn to read. It appears that those allocations could be spent over several years.

In higher education spending, there is one major new initiative, continued funding of major victories from the last two years, and some reductions.

The governor’s budget proposal allocates $125 million from Fair Share funds each year, which will support $2.5 billion to $3 billion in capital funding for infrastructure improvements across public higher education campuses.

The budget maintains funding for free community college and the major expansions of MassGrant Plus, to make higher education more affordable for low- and middle-income students. It also maintains funding for SUCCESS, wraparound support services for students at both community colleges and state universities.

Campus appropriations were generally up by at least 6% to 8%, reflecting the costs of collective bargaining agreements and the FY25 formula grant amounts being rolled into campus line items.

The governor does not fund the line items that distribute additional aid, through a formula, to community colleges and state universities. That is the way increases in funding are generally provided to those colleges and universities. In FY25 community colleges received $3.76 million and state universities, $7.31 million.

Tomorrow’s Teachers — a program that provides generous scholarships to students at public colleges and universities who commit to teach in our public schools, and debt relief for public school educators — is essentially level funded at $2.5 million.

The budget also includes several tax policy proposals that will raise state revenue, including capping deductions for charitable contributions, which generates $164 million; closing loopholes to raise $145 million; and subjecting candy to the state’s sales tax, which raises another $25 million.

The budget also proposes increasing the share of health care premiums paid by longtime and retired state employees. Currently, employees hired after FY03 pay 25% of their premiums, while employees hired before that pay 20%. Retired employees pay between 10% and 20% of their premiums, depending on their retirement date. The budget proposes that all employees and retirees would instead pay 25 p% of their health care premiums.