State Rep. Jennifer Balinsky Armini (D-Essex) announced at a Swampscott School Committee meeting that the town’s public schools could see an over 8% increase in funding per student, if all goes well and an agreement is made between the State House of Representatives and State Senate.
“Budgets can be a little crazy,” Armini said. “Education of course plays a big role in this document.”
Armini shared an update on the recently passed State House of Representatives budget. The $61.47 billion fiscal year 2026 budget is nearly $500 million below Gov. Maura Healey’s budget proposal. Armini also addressed the two student representatives on the board momentarily and explained that the state budget equates to the “state’s investment in you.”
Within the state budget, education funding falls under Chapter 70. This outlines the state’s system for providing financial assistance to public elementary and secondary schools.
“The House’s fiscal year 2026 budget makes key investments that better support Massachusetts students and families, that increase access to affordable health care and that provide for a safer and more reliable public transportation system – all without raising taxes,” House Speaker Ronald Mariano (D-Norfolk) said in a statement.
The House proposed a 6.7% increase in Chapter 70 funding over last year.
“What’s really exciting for a community like Swampscott is that the per pupil expenditure…is being boosted from $120 per students to $150 per students,” Armini said. “Just a few years ago, if you can believe it, it was at $30 per student. We’ve really come a long way, and we’re going to continue to come a long way.”
Based on the House budget, Swampscott is projected to receive an 8.2% funding increase, totaling $5,783,630, according to Armini.
School Committee Chair Glenn Paster called rising per-pupil costs a “budget buster.”
The House’s fiscal year 2026 fair share investments also include $190 million toward universal school meals, $50 million to school transportation reimbursements, $15 million for early literacy, and $80 million for financial aid expansion. Additionally, $122.1 million is proposed for regional school transportation and $483.2 million to go to Circuit Breaker special education program reimbursement.
“It’s great that the increase in the Circuit Breaker is coming,” Paster said. “I do believe that there should be something that is a little bit above and beyond it to when these cities and towns have this break that an above and beyond Circuit Breaker could help us manage our budget…We need to provide for special education. There’s only so much money so some of that definitely comes from the offerings on the gen. ed. side, so anything that could help defray some of those costs would be amazing.”
School Committee Member John Giantis added that increases in the special education budget for Swampscott over the last few years has “been double digits for sure.”
“I think for us, it’s that budget uncertainty that makes it hard to plan for,” Giantis said.
Armini cautioned that “this is just the House version,” and the final budgeting numbers may change.
“The Senate released its blueprint this week, and it kept the $150 per pupil,” Armini said. “Very, very happy about that.”
School Committee Member Suzanne Wright, however, said that “there’s a lot of room to find a middle ground.”
“I feel like there’s so many pressures, and sometimes a community like Swampscott…does get short-shafted a lot of times,” Wright said. “A lot of people perceive this as an upper-middle class community, even a solidly middle class community. Our demographics are certainly shifting, so there’s a lot of things that need to catch up for us. It’s always been tough for this district, and we haven’t always had super strong advocates for us.”
Armini said the funding formula is “skewed toward the census,” favoring a town like Lexington “because their census is booming” while others like Swampscott and Marblehead are seeing “censuses (that) have dropped.”
“Numbers are the numbers,” Wright said. “It’s really more about the challenges that your kids in the district are facing, the amount of free lunch and that’s hard to capture right now, the amount of English language learners and kids on IEPs.”
The State Senate is now set to vote on its version. Armini said she expects a consensus document by the end of June, “that hopefully the Governor will be willing to sign.”
