Amherst families try to correct combative narrative around school funding
This weekend, Amherst District 3 Councilor and newly elected Council Vice President George Ryan
sent an update on the Regional Schools budget to constituents on his mailing list. The full text of his
statement is included below. Unfortunately, Councilor Ryan’s update contains a number of inaccuracies, as well as statements
that demonstrate a lack of understanding of the challenges facing our Regional Schools.
It is crucial that we do not circulate incorrect information that creates division in our community. To
that end, we hope the following clarifications will illuminate realities that were misrepresented in
Councilman Ryan’s update.
Claim #1: Ryan states that the Town Council “doesn’t understand” why spending for the Regional
Schools is increasing faster than the town’s revenue, “especially given the significant long-term
reduction in the number of students we teach”.
Fact: There is no mystery as to why education costs are rising.
The financial pressures on our schools and those across Massachusetts are well-documented.
These challenges are frequently discussed by elected state officials, at public Town and School
Committee meetings, and in the media. The reason spending for the Regional Schools is increasing
faster than the town’s revenue is quite clear: charter schools, an increase in higher needs students,
and of course inflation. In fact, over the last several months, the Amherst Town Council has taken
two telling actions relevant to these challenges. It passed a resolution enumerating the ways in
which the state funding formula for charter schools “siphons money away from” and is
“undermining the stability of” our public schools. It also sent a letter to the Massachusetts
Secretary of Education urging the state to reevaluate years-old funding formulas and fund the “real
costs” of our schools. These actions reflect a clear understanding on the part of town Councilors
about the disparity between the schools’ budgetary needs and the funds allocated for their use.
Our school district’s expenses are subject to many of the same inflationary pressures impacting
other sectors of the economy and the town of Amherst. Our Regional Schools face additional stress
because they must cover rising retiree benefit costs within their operating budgets whereas the
Town subsidizes their own retiree costs in addition to their operating budget. This annual cost alone
exceeds the current deficit the Regional Schools are facing.
Additionally, even as our districts’ overall student population has declined, the percentage of
students with higher needs, (English language learners, students with disabilities, low-income
students) has increased, resulting in a student population that is, on average, more expensive to
educate than it has been in the past.
The chronic lack of sufficient funding has forced reductions in staff that are outpacing the decline in
student enrollment. The real cost of educating our children may be inconvenient but it is neither
surprising nor mysterious.
Claim #2: “The School Committee’s position has been that public safety, public works, and other
municipal services should be reduced to allow the Regional assessment to grow
disproportionately”
Fact: This narrative has been repeated numerous times using the language of “pitting schools
against potholes.” We have found no evidence of any statement the School Committee has made
about decreasing the budgets of sectors or municipal services to address school needs.
Indeed, advocates for school funding (parents and caregivers but also others in town who recognize
the broad importance of maintaining excellence in our public education) have voiced concerns
about resource allocation at public meetings. These citizens have argued that surplus generation
(multiple millions of dollars of tax money left over at the end of the year) should be reduced so that
more money is put into operating budgets, to be shared among all of the departments in town.
Advocates have also argued that there should be more transparency around end of the year
allocation of these surpluses – so that all sectors of town could share in this revenue.
Claim #3: The Regional School Committee has not engaged in discussions on how to bring costs
down and instead has “remained fixed on short-term tweaks and unrealistic revenue
rearrangements”
Fact: It is our understanding that until late last year, the Regional School Committee was represented on the Budget Coordinating Group (the body consisting of the municipality, the Library and the schools, that is tasked with coordinating budget needs and priorities within Amherst) in a seat reserved for two Amherst School Committee reps. In a move toward better engagement and collaboration, the Regional School Committee requested that one additional seat be reserved for a representative specifically to speak on behalf of the Regional Schools. That request was granted this year.
Representatives from the Regional School Committee routinely participate in meetings and
communicate with Town Councilors about both the challenges and proposed solutions to our
town’s budget issues. SOS members have repeatedly seen a misalignment of values between those
who see value in educational excellence and those whose perspectives are dominated by
frustration at rising costs. These types of divides have led to unproductive conversations and
community members who feel unheard and undervalued.
Massachusetts General Law tasks the Superintendent and not the School Committee with making
detailed budget decisions. The School Committee gives guidance to the Superintendent, who, with
the School Finance Director and the input of building leadership, drafts the detailed budget. Our
new Superintendent is engaged in this work currently, as well as an exhaustive review of the
district’s finances. She and her team are working diligently to reduce the projected deficit, but she
is hampered by many fixed costs outside of her control. This work for our district, on the part of the
superintendent, is long overdue and should be acknowledged, celebrated, and encouraged.
Claim #4: Councilor Ryan insinuates that the Regional School Committee is somehow responsible
for an unfair assessment of Amherst’s portion of the Regional School budget.
Fact: The Regional School Committee does not decide what portion of the district budget is paid by
the Town of Amherst. The Regional School budget assessment is detailed in the 1953 Regional
School Agreement Document and subsequent amendments, as agreed upon by the Towns of
Amherst, Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury. Deviation from the assessment method in this
document in any particular year must be approved by 3 of the 4 towns through votes by the Amherst
Town Council and the Pelham, Leverett, and Shutesbury Annual Town meetings.
Thank you for reading. We hope that the points we have made in this statement will allow people to
better understand that there are legitimate reasons for our rising educational costs and that the
Regional Schools are subject to pressures not applied to other sectors of town. Parents of children
in our school system and members of our School Committees are asking that town leadership work
collaboratively with us toward our shared goal of high-quality public education.
Respectfully Yours,
Support Our Schools Amherst
Support Our Schools (SOS) Amherst is a group of residents (85 members and growing) helping
each other understand issues and get involved in adequately funding our public schools. We aim to
increase community knowledge of public school and municipal budgeting, as well as state funding
for public schools, with the goal of ensuring more equitable funding for our children. Learn more at
www.arpsparents.com.
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Text of George Ryan’s comments regarding the Regional Schools Budget:
Council Updates: I have covered most of the Council highlights in my introductory message. Here I
want to touch on two other topics: the 2025 Town Manager Goals and the challenge of our school
budgets. Let me start with the FY26 school budgets. To date the attention has been exclusively on
the Regional School budget. We are still awaiting the Elementary School budget proposal. The
Regional School budget is complicated by the fact that there are four towns involved and the
assessment method for determining what each Town will pay (and hence what the budgetary
impact will be) is complex. What is clear is that Amherst pays roughly 80% of the total cost of the
Regional Schools and that the current assessment method is actually to Amherst’s disadvantage.
But the critical issue with the Regional budget is that spending is growing faster than the town’s
revenues. We are still trying to understand why that is especially given the significant long-term
reduction in the number of students we teach. But whatever the reasons, the reality we all face is
that spending is outstripping revenues. To date the School Committee’s position has been that
public safety, public works and other municipal services should be reduced to allow the Regional
assessment to grow disproportionately. This would be a dramatic reversal of long-standing Town
policies. All Town services and programs are increasingly stressed by rising costs and constricted
revenues. I don’t believe the solution is to pit one part of the budget against the others. We need a
sustainable plan that respects all our priorities, and one that we develop together.
Toward that end the Council and the Finance Committee have engaged the Regional School
Committee for some months in two ways: (1) laying out the realities of the Town’s overall financial
situation; and (2) asking the Regional School Committee to join us in a substantive discussion
about how to bring the cost of educating our young people into alignment with our resources. (You
can learn more about that effort here.) To date that discussion has not occurred and the Regional
School Committee’s focus has remained fixed on short-term tweaks and unrealistic revenue
rearrangements.
I believe we owe it to our students — current and future — as well as our valued teachers and staff to
tackle this challenge head-on, and I remain hopeful that the Regional School Committee will
respond to our request to work together on a long-term strategy that will provide stability to our
schools in a challenging financial environment. This is a time not for division and taking sides but