Speaker Fox: equitable education funding formula will be a priority this session

If addressing poverty in Rhode Island is your thing, the House is probably going to be the chamber in which you have the heavy lifting to do this legislative session.

I caught up with House Speaker Gordon Fox last night, and I didn’t hear the same kind of commitment that Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed made last week when she said, “The Senate’s focus this session on the economy will be inextricably intertwined with the causes of poverty. We can’t move the economy forward without addressing the very issues that underline poverty.” When I asked Fox if he shared Paiva Weed’s commitment to addressing poverty he said, “She and I share a lot of priorities and we’ve already discussed them so let’s see how it plays out.”

But if an equitable public education for every student in Rhode Island, there’s reason to have high hopes in the House this session. When I asked Fox what his poverty priorities are this session, Fox said “making sure equity is built into [the education funding formula] because we know that some of the highest needs – I was one of the those kids – it’s really about addressing it through public education.”

You can watch our entire three minute conversation here (thanks for the extra minute, Speaker!)