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This ‘editorial’ is filled with lots of opinion and little fact. It is FAKE NEWS. The facts are that the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District which was established by the two towns in 1958 and amended in 1987 never spelled out any talk of an “alternative” assessment method. The Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District has received state aid since its formation and neither in 1958 nor in 1987 did anyone seek to change the apportionment of state funding to the district. Regardless it is NOT true that “Every regional school follows an “alternative” method” in funding”. In fact, most do not.

The facts are that the state uses it’s own wealth formula to provide state aid to towns and school districts. This is based upon a towns property value and personnel income. In the case of Rehoboth, the Equalized Property Value is $1.76 billion dollars. The Equalized Property Value of Dighton is $893 million dollars, or about half of Rehoboth. Accordingly, Rehoboth would receive about half as much state aid as compared to Dighton if apportioned to this one measure.

The editorial suggests that someone finds a way to reapportion staid aid to Rehoboth using an alternative assessment method. Why should they do so? Why should they take state aid which is allocated to Dighton and allocate it to Rehoboth instead? It also implies that Rehoboth would not be a member of the regional school district if this assessment method was known in advance. In fact, it would make no difference. If Rehoboth schools were organized as a municipal district and not a regional district the state aid provided and the minimum required contribution required would remain the same. The state would still use the wealth formula to provide aid to the town of Rehoboth. Rehoboth would still be required to pay the same minimum cost per student.

What the editorial doesn’t tell you is that Rehoboth would lose nearly a million dollars of regional transportation aid. Say hello to bus fees and bye bye to state transportation aid. What is also not mentioned is that in order to balance the budget, the town would be able to cut more millions of dollars which are currently being allocated to the schools. Say goodbye to teachers and hello to larger class sizes and inferior educational programs. Check out how North Attleboro is making out on it’s own as a municipal school district. Good quality schools cost money. Regional school districts save towns money. The town of Rehoboth would be hard pressed to provide the same educational benefits to its students if it were not part of the regional school district.

If you feel strongly that the state aid apportionment method is unfair, you should be reaching out to your local legislature to ask them to change it. The Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District follows the “statutory” assessment method. The is the law. While I am a member of the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School Committee, I am providing you these factual comments as a citizen to help my neighbors and friends to better understand this complex topic. These comments are not a statement from the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District.

Sincerely,

Christopher Andrade