What's Happening?

The reality is that public education throughout the state of Massachusetts is in crisis—and nowhere more so than in rural areas. The problem is not with the Mohawk District; the problem is at the state level—which means there’s hope.

In the 1960s, there was a push to regionalize rural school districts in Massachusetts to save the state money. This came with the promise that the state would fully fund the transportation for rural school districts--which is a sizable portion of our annual budget. This promise has never been fully met (we have typically received between 76% and 90% of what we were promised (see slide 124)).

Additionally, until 2003, the state typically raised aid to meet rising costs in our districts through the state's Chapter 70 program (as it did for all schools in the commonwealth). 

But between 2003 and 2004, the state cut its Chapter 70 aid drastically. (For a really excellent deep dive into Chapter 70 and how it applies to funding in schools like ours, see this explainer in the Amherst Indy.) No district has been spared, but rural districts, like ours, have suffered the most. In that single 2003 - 2004 year, Mohawk's aid was cut by 19.6% ($1.4M dollars)—and the state has barely increased its aid since then. In fact, in 2025 we are still receiving less that we did in 2003! (This funding formula is currently being discussed at the state level; fixing it could be a huge benefit to our district. Stay tuned for how to advocate for better funding for our schools). 

To cover the disparity in educational costs between rural and urban areas, Massachusetts also has a Rural Aid program, which has its funding set every year during the state budgeting process. Though the funding level has generally increased since the program’s inception, it varies from year to year, is subject to the whims of politics, and is never enough. 

To make up the difference in the aid that the state has promised, but never paid, the towns in our district have had to continually increase their property-tax assessments. At the same time, student enrollment has generally been decreasing since the 1990s—though K-6 enrollment has held relatively steady for a decade, and total K-12 enrollment has been on a steady climb since 2021.