Schools, teachers eye millionaires tax as pre-K-12 public ed faces financial crisis

School superintendents, teachers’ union leaders, mayors, select board and school committee members, and city councilors — more than 1,000 of them across the state — want surplus money from the “millionaires tax” put into education to head off a financial crisis.

“Really what’s happening is school departments across the state are suffering,” said Westfield School Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski . “And the funding mechanism is not keeping up with inflation, health insurance costs and salary demands.”

Czaporowski was one of the officials who signed, along with Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno; West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt; Erik Berg, president of the Boston Teachers Union; Jeri Robinson, School Committee chair of Boston Public Schools; Melissa Verdier, president of the