Council Urges Support for Bill S.403 to Improve School Building Program

The Council is calling on the Massachusetts State Legislature to pass Bill S.403, a crucial piece of legislation that would establish a special commission to review the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) and assess the adequacy and equity of the current school building program.

For over two decades, the MSBA has played a vital role in funding new schools and repairing aging buildings across the state, with 1.25 cents from the state sales tax dedicated to supporting these efforts. Boston has benefitted from both the MSBA's Accelerated Repair Program — which has helped update critical infrastructure such as windows, doors, and boilers — and the Core Program, funding new school builds like the Josiah Quincy Upper School, the upcoming Carter School, and ongoing projects such as Shaw-Taylor Elementary and Ruth Batson School.

However, the current MSBA process is not without its challenges. The Core Program can take up to 8 years to complete a school, slowing projects unnecessarily. Additionally, once a project reaches the design or study phase, it is required to start the entire MSBA process from the beginning, which can lead to duplicative costs and delays, as seen in the ongoing rebuild of Madison Park Technical Vocational High School — a project Boston has already spent years and millions of dollars on.

Building a high-quality vocational school like Madison Park is a monumental task, with expected costs reaching $750 million — a figure too high for any one school district to fund alone. With Boston’s urgent need for dozens of new schools over the next two decades, the Council believes it's time for a reevaluation of the MSBA’s structure and processes. The proposed bill would create a commission to explore ways to streamline MSBA operations, including allowing districts to join the process after the design phase, speeding up timelines, and increasing funding for districts with higher needs, such as Boston.

In addition, the Council is exploring the creation of a Boston School Building Authority, which would leverage direct state aid and other financing options to accelerate the school building process in the city.

Boston has faced a decline in net state aid over the past decade, with the city receiving just $133 million in Fiscal Year 2024, down from $365 million in 2008. This funding gap has made it increasingly difficult for Boston to meet its growing educational infrastructure needs. The Council believes that Bill S.403 presents an opportunity to address this gap and ensure that Boston’s schools are properly funded and built in a timely manner.

The Council adopted a resolution urging the state legislature to pass Bill S.403 and consider the potential for direct state aid for new school construction outside of the MSBA process. With the urgent need for new schools in Boston, this legislation could be a critical step toward ensuring a better future for all students in the city.