Massachusetts
Pensions vs. classrooms: Rising retirement costs are squeezing Massachusetts education – The Boston Globe
While standardized test scores of Massachusetts students are still mostly below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, one education statistic that keeps rising is the cost to the state of funding teachers’ pensions.
In a new report on pension costs across six populous states including Massachusetts, we found that in the Bay State, 14 cents of every tax dollar dedicated to associated education spending went to pensions in 2022. That’s up from 9 cents in 2015 and far above the 8 cents forked over by taxpayers in our runner-up state, California.
Despite this increase in resources, the financial strength of the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement System hasn’t improved. Over this period, the percentage of assets the fund has relative to the value of its pension commitments remained consistently low, increasing from just below 57 percent to just below 58 percent.
Yes that’s right, MTRS has less than 58 cents saved for every dollar it owes, even under its assumption of a 7.15 percent return on investments every year. To put that in perspective, MTRS would consider a $100,000 payment due in 10 years as “fully funded” if it had just over $50,000 in its account today. And yet, this eye-popping increase in cash has barely kept MTRS treading water. This means that without policy reforms, Bay State taxpayers will probably pay an increasingly hefty bill.
While the MTRS funding ratio and contribution increases are worse than its peers, these trends reflect a nationwide problem. Public pensions when properly measured are underfunded to the tune of $5.12 trillion, and the cost burden on state and local governments is increasing.
To understand how the contribution increases impact education, consider that Massachusetts’ current education budget for fiscal 2024 is $7.95 billion. The fact that pension contributions have increased by 5 percentage points translates into $398 million per year of additional money going into the fund than if the share had remained at its 2015 level.
This means that the state has $398 million fewer dollars per year to dedicate to important expenditures such as salaries for new teachers, classroom resources, or support services such as counselors, technicians, or librarians.
State revenues generally rise of course, as they have in recent years, giving the state more money at its disposal to offset these increases. For example, while pension contributions per pupil in Massachusetts have risen by 109 percent since 2015, revenues per pupil have increased by 21 percent, softening the blow.
Yet this pace of revenue growth is not guaranteed. While Massachusetts fiscal 2025 budget foresees a $2 billion or roughly 3.5 percent spending increase, the incremental revenues are coming mostly from the significant Fair Share tax increase. Money to fund education, pensions, and other public priorities does not grow on trees. It comes out of taxpayers’ pockets.
Massachusetts officials could address the pension challenge through one key policy change: moving new employees from traditional defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans similar to 401(k)s.
Current teachers typically receive pensions based on a formula that uses a series of inputs including employees’ salaries, the ages of the employees, and the number of years of employees’ service. If an employee leaves their job, pension benefits are reduced or lost.
401(k)-type plans conversely require the state to contribute a flat percent of pay to a tax-deferred account as long as the employee is working in the job. Employees who leave the job can take their full accumulated retirement savings with them, and the state avoids the creation of more long-term obligations.
The mobility of 401(k)-type plans could attract more young people to the teaching profession, since they often prioritize flexibility early in their careers. While public sector defined benefit plans tend to be more generous than private sector 401(k) plans, that difference can be reduced by offering higher employer contributions. This setup would vastly improve the state’s finances while ensuring that retirement contributions do not continue to consume ever-increasing shares of education budgets.
Ultimately the burden of pension contributions will threaten the Commonwealth’s ability to remain a national leader in education. It would serve the state and its valued teachers well to move to a more sustainable model for retirement benefits before it’s too late.
Joshua Rauh is a professor of finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Gregory Kearney is a senior research analyst at the Hoover Institution.
Police shot and killed a man who officials say rushed officers with a knife during a call in Lexington, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said the situation started around 1:40 p.m. when Lexington police received a 911 call from a resident of Mason Street reporting that his son had injured himself with a knife.
Officers from the Lexington Police Department and officers from the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC), who were already in town for Patriots’ Day events, responded to the call.
Police were able to escort two other residents out of the home, initially leaving a 26-year-old man inside. According to Ryan, while officers were setting up outside, the man ran out of the home and approached officers with a large kitchen knife.
She added that police tried twice to use non-lethal force, but it was not effective in stopping him. The man was shot by a Wilmington police officer who is a member of NEMLEC. The man was pronounced dead on scene and the officer who fired that shot was taken to a local hospital as a precaution.
The man’s name has not been released.
Ryan said typically in a call like this where someone was described as harming themselves, officers would first try to separate anyone else to keep them out of danger, which was done, and then standard practice would be to try to wait outside.
“It would be their practice to just wait for the person to come out. In the terrible circumstances of today, he suddenly rushed the officers, still clutching the knife,” Ryan said.
The investigation is still in the preliminary stages and more information is expected in time. Ryan said her office will request a formal inquest from the court to review whether any criminal conduct has occurred, which is the standard process.
This happened around the same time as the annual Patriots’ Day Parade, and just hours after a reenactment of the Battle of Lexington, which drew large crowds to town.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Massachusetts
‘An impossible choice’: With little federal help to combat rising costs, Head Start looks to Massachusetts for more help – The Boston Globe
In Massachusetts, roughly 1,300 slots for children across Head Start’s 28 agencies have been eliminated in the last three years because federal funding has plateaued over that time, while the cost of running the program continues to rise, according to the Massachusetts Head Start Association. Nationally, Head Start enrollment dropped from 1.1 million kids in 2013 to around 785,000 in 2022, according to research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
“If they didn’t get into a Head Start program, they would be sitting at home,” said Brittany Acosta, a Head Start parent in Dorchester.
It’s teachers are drastically underpaid, and there’s a serious need for a rainy day-type fund should the federal government shut down again, the association says. As they’ve done in years past, state lawmakers have offered to provide financial relief, but the Massachusetts Head Start Association’s request for 3 percent above the amount it received last year, an additional $4.6 million to help its staff keep up with the state’s rising cost of living, so far has not been allocated.
Last year, President Trump’s leaked budget proposal revealed he considered eliminating Head Start entirely. Then, in the summer, he cut off Head Start enrollment for immigrants without legal status. And during the fall’s government shutdown, four Head Start centers in Massachusetts closed because they couldn’t access their funding.
Trump’s latest budget proposal shows a fourth year without increasing funding for the program, which was established in the mid-1960s.
Michelle Haimowitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association, said the program doesn’t want to eliminate more child slots than it already has, but paying teachers a competitive salary is equally important in order to keep them from leaving for higher paying jobs. Head Start teachers make under $50,000 annually compared to over $85,000 for the average Massachusetts kindergarten teacher.
“It’s an impossible choice,” Haimowitz said. “When we reduce the size of our programs, we’re not reducing the size of the need.”
Massachusetts is one of few states that supplements federal funding for Head Start, and last year it increased the program’s state grant from $5 million to $20 million, adding to the $189 million in federal aid it receives in this state.
“We can’t run a program without giving staff a raise for three years,” Haimowitz said. “Our next fight now is not just for survival, but it’s for thriving and growth.”
The Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday released its budget, which doesn’t grant Head Start’s request of a 3 percent boost. But state Representative Christopher Worrell filed an amendment for additional funding. Worrell, whose district covers parts of Dorchester and Roxbury, said he loves Head Start’s embrace of culture, recalling one visit to a center where he could smell staff cooking stew chicken, a traditional Caribbean dish.
“I’ve been to dozens of schools throughout the district, and you don’t get that home-cooked meal,” Worrell said. “[The state is] stepping up and doing the best we can with what we have.”
At the Action for Boston Community Development’s Head Start and Early Head Start center in Dorchester, the children of Classroom 7 arrived one Monday morning and dove into bins of magnetic tiles before their teachers, Paola Polanco and Leolina Rasundar Chinnappa, served breakfast. Acosta dropped off her 4-year-old daughter, Violeta, before reporting to her teaching position at the center, where several other Head Start parents also work.
“It’s important for all Head Start parents to have the opportunity to give their child an experience in a learning environment before they actually start kindergarten,” Acosta said.
Beyond providing early education and care to children of low-income families, from birth to age 5, the program helps them access other resources, including mental health services, SNAP benefits, homelessness assistance, and employment opportunities.
It also serves as daycare for parents who might not be able to afford it, while they’re at work.
Research has shown the importance of preschool in a child’s development with one 2023 study, focused on Boston public preschools, finding that it improves student behavior and increases the likelihood of high school graduation and college enrollment.
For Rickencia Clerveaux and Christopher Mclean, the Dorchester Head Start center is the only place they feel comfortable sending their 3-year-old son, Shontz, who is on the autism spectrum. Shontz’s stimming — repetitive movements that stimulate the senses — has reduced, and his speech has improved since he joined the center in 2024, Clerveaux said.
His parents say he’s also come out of his shell. Mclean now drops his son off and gets a simple “bye” as Shontz joins his classmates, he said.
He and Clerveaux said they appreciate the specialized attention Shontz can receive from teachers, such as when staff identified that Shontz might have hearing issues. His parents were able to follow up with their doctor and get Shontz to have surgery to improve his hearing.
“It’s a safe net for parents,” Clerveaux said. “There’s so many ways that him being here helps him grow better.”
Without Head Start, Clerveaux said a lot of pressure would be put on parents to find care for their children, “knowing that they’re already struggling or not getting the ends to meet.”
“That’s a burden for everybody in the community,” she said. “If there’s no funding, there’s no daycare and parents cannot work.”
Lauren Albano can be reached at lauren.albano@globe.com. Follow her on X @LaurenAlbano_.
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