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Cameras are coming to Marblehead's school buses, and the town's young musicians and aspiring cooks are getting a boost after two state lawmakers steered $65,000 to the public schools.
The bus money lands as Massachusetts districts increasingly turn to cameras to catch drivers who illegally pass stopped buses, a longstanding danger to children climbing on and off. A law Gov. Maura Healey signed in January 2025 lets cities, towns and school districts mount cameras on buses and ticket motorists who roll past while the red lights are flashing and the stop arm is extended. Neighboring Peabody, after fitting 10 buses with cameras in a pilot, tallied 3,412 illegal passes in a single school year, about 2.3 a day.
State Sen. Brendan Crighton and Rep. Jenny Armini announced the $65,000 Thursday, saying it came through the state's fiscal 2026 Fair Share supplemental budget, which channels surplus surtax revenue into schools and roads. Crighton, a Lynn Democrat and the Senate chair of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation, and Armini, a Marblehead Democrat in her second term, represent overlapping districts that include the town.
Of the total, $40,000 will outfit the district's school buses with cameras, which the announcement cast as a student safety measure. The remaining $25,000 will support music and culinary arts programs.
The money flows from Fair Share, the constitutional amendment Massachusetts voters approved in 2022. It placed an extra 4% tax on the portion of a household's annual income above $1 million — lifting the rate on that slice to 9% — and tied the proceeds to public education and transportation.
By the state's own count, the surtax has outrun projections, generating more than $6 billion over its first three years for free school meals, free community college, child care and work on roads and transit. Marblehead's award is a sliver of the latest round. The roughly $1.8 billion supplemental budget, built largely on about $1.3 billion in surplus surtax revenue, steers money statewide to public transportation, special education, early literacy and school-based mental health programs, along with one-time local projects like the town's.
Crighton cast the surtax as a steady engine for the systems he helps oversee. He pointed to "critical investments in our transportation and education systems" and said the latest funding "helps to meet the needs of the moment."
For Armini, who lives in Marblehead, the appeal is closer to home. She thanked Crighton for a partnership she called "indispensable," then put the focus on local students. "These are practical, community-driven investments that enhance the student experience for Marbleheaders," she said.
It all traces to the same place: a surtax paid only by residents who earn more than $1 million a year, redirected into cameras on a yellow school bus and new support for the Marblehead kids who play instruments and learn to cook.
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