In 2019, Massachusetts passed historic legislation in the name of equity that significantly boosted state funding for public school districts with high proportions of low‑income, English learner, and special education students.

The Student Opportunity Act (SOA) increased Chapter 70 aid – the state’s primary school funding law and program – by $1.5 billion across a seven-year rollout. Nearly three-quarters of that additional aid has been allocated to urban districts in Gateway Cities with often weak tax bases that serve a disproportionate number of high-needs students and rely heavily on state education funding.

At the time of the SOA’s passage, school and city leaders hailed the legislation as a long-overdue update to the state’s K-12 funding formula, one that boosts aid for districts educating lots of students from low-income households.

The well-intended move was aimed at addressing persistent racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps, but what Beacon Hill perhaps didn’t foresee was the greater financial pressure it would place on municipal budgets as sluggish state aid growth that has not kept pace with inflation, strict limits on local tax increases, and rising costs continue to trap many local governments between a rock and a hard place.

In New Bedford, the significant funding increases from the SOA have helped the school district hire more counselors, specialists, and other support staff. Of the nearly 12,500 students enrolled in New Bedford Public Schools, 26 percent are English learners, 24 percent have disabilities, and 79 percent are low income. Overall, nearly 88 percent of the student population is considered high need.

The K-12 funding formula, first crafted as part of the 1993 Education Reform Act, establishes a foundation budget, the minimum amount of education spending per pupil deemed necessary to deliver an adequate education.

Districts must meet that required minimum spending level through a combination of state aid and local funding. State aid makes up a larger share of the foundation budget in poorer districts and in those educating more high-needs students.

The formula had not kept up with the higher costs associated with educating disadvantaged students, and the SOA significantly increased the state aid for educating these pupils. It also increased the level set by the state as the foundation budget for these students, which increased the amount of local spending required by districts to reach their required share of school costs.

“We welcome more education aid, as our schools need it … The upshot is, for better or worse, we are contributing more to schools,” New Bedford mayor Jon Mitchell said in a May press release. (Mitchell’s office declined to make him available for an interview and pointed to his remarks on the issue from his budget address this spring.)

Some municipalities won’t see a mandated local spending hike because they already contribute above the minimum amounts required by state law, but others, like New Bedford, fund their public schools at the mandated minimum.

“We do so, not because we believe the schools don’t need more money, but it’s all that we can afford,” Mitchell said in his May budget address.

As of fiscal year 2027, Chapter 70 aid from the state accounted for more than 86 percent ($271 million) of New Bedford’s education budget, while the city is responsible for the remaining 14 percent ($43 million), for a total of more than $314 million.

Mitchell says that without proportional increases in other funding streams, the localcontribution requirements of the SOA have contributed to a recent and unprecedented budget deficit of $32 million.

While growth in unrestricted local aid – state funding for all non-education needs – has remained relatively flat, increasing by just 10 percent ($2.7 million) in New Bedford between fiscal year 2023, roughly the time the state fully funded the SOA’s rollout after pandemic-related delays, and fiscal year 2027, the city’s required local contribution to schools has increased by 26 percent ($9 million) in the same timeframe. Meanwhile, New Bedford’s tax levy ceiling – the maximum amount it can raise through property taxes – has grown by 19 percent ($28.5 million) since 2023.

More Context

• Municipal budgets at the breaking point (November 2025)
• Cities and towns desperately need boost in state aid, group says (December 2025)