The Massachusetts House on Wednesday passed its own version of a $1.5 billion education funding bill, setting up a conflict with the Senate over the state’s role in ensuring that local districts are held accountable for how they spend the money.
House Education Committee Chairwoman Rep. Alice Peisch, D-Wellesley, told reporters before the vote that if the state is providing a $1.5 billion infusion of money into local districts, there should be some way to ensure there is accountability.
“We recognize that the local communities and the teachers and the administrators on the ground are in much better position than someone at a state level to determine what those students need,” Peisch said. “But in those rare instances where maybe the decisions are well-intended but are not achieving the goal of offering all students a good education and spending those dollars well, we have to have some mechanism to ensure that money gets to those students who this money was intended to serve.”
