This morning I met on the common in West Brookfield with constituents who are passionate about saving the West Brookfield Elementary School. The school is in danger of closing, sending pupils to Warren, the other town in the Quaboag Regional School District.
The town is facing two override votes to try to preserve town services and save the school. They are just one of many communities in this dire situation.
What many folks didn't know was that this week, in Boston, House Republicans stood up and forced a roll call vote in an effort to fully fund Rural School Aid which could have helped communities like West Brookfield.
That amendment would have raised the funding to $60 million which is what the state’s own commission said it should be. But Democrats killed it.
Democrats didn’t debate it. They didn’t even offer an alternative.
They killed it.
Every single Democrat in the House stood up and voted against the thing these rural communities need most and then they went home.
I and my Republican colleagues in the Senate have plans to try to right this wrong when we begin work on our budget next week.
We plan to file and support amendments to fund Rural School Aid and increase Local Aid by cutting programs like free calls for inmates. We will propose increasing funding for Regional School Transportation and tapping the interest in the state’s so-called rainy day fund - because across the state it’s pouring on our small communities and they are drowning.
This morning, these hearty folks looked at the details of the House vote in surprise and asked over and over, what can we do to get these Democrats on our side?
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