With the 2019 Massachusetts budget signed into law by Republican Governor Charlie Baker Thursday, Democratic State Senator Adams Hinds is touting education funding for the western part of the state.
Hinds is celebrating the new rural sparsity school aid line item. $1.5 million in the budget will go to schools with ten or less students per square mile and a per capita income below the state average. The Pittsfield Democrat says about a million of that will be going to Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties.
“In my district I see a handful of schools have been closing and our enrollment has been going down, and so this is an effort to address that and give that extra boost," he told WAMC.
Hinds says he put forward the amendment based on feedback from area school superintendents.
