Newton Schools High Costs for Out-of-District Students

By William Heck

Joshua Norman’s December 12 column outlines the net costs paid by Newton taxpayers to educate out-of-district students in Newton schools. It is $9.9 million annually. I hope you read the column as you need to know the facts about Newton and its $1.34 billion debt, largely due to the costs of Newton schools.

The core issue is that Newton schools cost too much. It isn't hard to figure out that the city presses overrides on taxpayers to pay costs related to out-of-district students. Out-of-district students net annual costs hover around $10M, overrides hover around $10M. The relationship is obvious.

Newton taxpayers fund education for approximately 600 out-of-district students. In short, Newton runs the equivalent of an entire school to educate out-of-district students, largely from Boston, which costs taxpayers nearly $10 million net annually.

It is important to remember that all cities and towns collect taxes from their citizens to pay education costs for their students. It is also important to remember that when Boston and other cities and towns send their students to Newton, Boston and the other cities and towns keep all the money that was collected to pay education costs for their students. This is patently unfair to Newton taxpayers.

Think about this: Newton spends many millions of dollars each year to send special education students to out-of-district schools that provide special education services. We, Newton taxpayers, do not expect other cities and towns to pay for educational services that are provided to Newton students when they receive services from out-of-district schools. Similarly, Newton taxpayers do not expect to pay for the costs of education services provided to out-of-district students in Newton schools.

The high cost of Newton schools is largely driven by the net costs related to servicing out-of-district students in Newton schools. This is patently unfair to Newton taxpayers.

William Heck is a former Newton Taxpayers Association Vice President, as well as a former Newton mayoral candidate.