Editor’s note: This is a story in a continuing series examining the Special Commission on Rural School Districts’ report.

As rural school districts continue to work within tight budget constraints that often threaten or outright cut extracurricular programs, some families opt to use School Choice to send their child to another district, which can add further financial burden to already-struggling districts.

School Choice, enshrined in Massachusetts General Law in Chapter 76, Section 12B, allows families, by right, to enroll students outside their home school district. The law was designed to foster competition in the state among school districts and to ensure students were able to leave chronically underperforming school districts. Area superintendents, however, say that while the intent behind the law was just, it has created “unintended consequences” for small, rural districts.

“On that premise, I agree, we shouldn’t be mandating students to attend schools that are chronically underperforming,” said Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont regional school districts’ Superintendent Sheryl Stanton. “What it’s done, is it has allowed really savvy, advantaged parents … to find alternate educational experience for their kids. As schools encounter financial issues or concerns and the discussion begins about what may get reduced in a budget cycle, they start to consider other options.”

The challenge for rural districts in School Choice comes from the tuition amounts required. For each student leaving their home district, the school must pay a tuition rate to the district receiving that student. For 2022, that rate has been set at $5,000 per student — the maximum allowed by the law.

As students choice out of districts for a variety of reasons, which could include extracurricular programs like sports and theater, this financial burden can begin to snowball into an ever-growing and crippling cost to the district. Since fiscal year 2017, the Mohawk Trail Regional School District has had more School Choice students leaving the district than those entering. In FY22, the district had 105 students choice out, while receiving 84. With 105 students choicing out, Mohawk Trail is on the hook for $525,000 in School Choice tuition — a state spreadsheet indicates 25 of those kids are attending Rowe Elementary School.

“This is the trend that districts with declining enrollment are facing. With flat Chapter 70 aid, districts have to make really difficult decisions about their budget,” Stanton said. “When that happens, you no longer become a School Choice receiving district. … If we were keeping 114 students and $650,000 in our budget, we would be an attractive district.”

Frontier Regional and Union 38 Superintendent Darius Modestow agreed with Stanton, even as Frontier receives more than double the number of School Choice students than other Franklin County schools. For FY22, Frontier received 171 students, compared to Greenfield’s 70.

“When the state developed School Choice, I don’t believe they envisioned what is occurring in western Massachusetts and the cape. Eastern Massachusetts doesn’t have the School Choice decisions being made with the same frequency out here in western Mass.,” Modestow said, adding that eastern Massachusetts doesn’t “have a difference in equity in schools one district apart. If you go to Weston and Wellesley, they have all that they need.”

To protect rural school districts with low enrollment, the Special Commission on Rural School Districts recommended the state cap School Choice tuition at 10% of a district’s foundation enrollment, or the number of eligible students living in a district’s region. Mohawk Trail’s cap for FY23 would be set at 22 students, meaning the district would only pay a maximum of roughly $111,000.

“That would stop the flow of funding, which would then stop the reductionist mentality we have to get into. … You can keep the programs parents are looking for,” Stanton said. “You can imagine if that half a million stayed in the district, you’re looking at a much more substantial and robust core instructional program.”

Frontier benefits

On the other end of the spectrum, Modestow said Frontier has benefited from School Choice, but a change in the formula could help neighboring districts.

“Frontier and Union 38 schools have benefited from the School Choice program, and we are able to have healthy and diverse programs with the critical mass these additional students provide,” Modestow said. “When folks say, ‘We need to stop or reduce School Choice,’ the other parts of the equation need to be adjusted as well. School Choice is a complicated issue, and it also ties into charter schools and the vocational/technical schools increasing their enrollments and how they affect the regular school and town budgets.”

The commission noted these points and made the recommendation to “further examine” School Choice and how it affects students caught up in these complex financial models.

“School Choice may have the unintended consequence of reducing equity — people with economic means, and often white, choice to better-funded school districts,” the commission’s report reads. “If true, the School Choice program, as originally envisioned, is failing and should be further re-evaluated by the Legislature to ensure it is functioning in the manner intended in its creation.”

If these changes were implemented, Stanton said schools could implement more diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives without worry of crippling financial burdens. She gave the example of an integrated math program, which would include all students, rather than an exclusive honors program. If families feel that is not the best choice for their children, it is their right to choose a different school, but those remaining will ultimately feel the effects of School Choice’s financial obligations.

“If the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education truly feels that students should be in an integrative and inclusive model … it needs to get involved,” Stanton said. “Otherwise, districts get penalized for doing the right work.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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