education disparity

March 4, 2013March 4, 2013

Gist On Public Education Disparity In Rhode Island

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gist in eg — Education Commissioner Deborah Gist at Archie R. Cole Middle School in East Greenwich.

I went to an East Greenwich school this morning to interview state Education Commissioner Deborah Gist about the education disparity between the affluent suburbs in Rhode Island and the poorer inner cities. While I was waiting for her a 7th grade student came into the office to report finding a diamond.

This pretty much sums up public education in Rhode Island. In Central Falls, seven of ten students are in danger of not graduating. In East Greenwich, students literally find precious gems on the floor.

East Greenwich and Barrington offer better public education than Central Falls, Woonsocket, Providence and Pawtucket not because they have better students or better teachers or better test scores. It’s because they have more money.

It’s true that the state spends more on the average student from impoverished school districts than it does on the affluent ones, but even still it’s very hard to argue that kids in East Greenwich aren’t getting a much better education than kids from Central Falls are. In this clip, Gist admits that by her own metrics, EG students do get a better education than Central Falls students.

In fact, if resources were doled out by a school’s need rather than the public sector’s willingness to pay, students in Central Falls would get way more tax dollars than would students in East Greenwich. But we only use those metrics to decide who fails, not where to apply our resources. The state is implementing a new funding formula that will help, but it is not enough and it is being phased in very slowly to mitigate the hit to taxpayers.

In the meantime, the haves are getting a good public education in Rhode Island while the have-nots are not. The question is not whether we are doing more for the have-nots, the question is are we doing enough.

This is the single most important issue in local public education. Not whether we use test scores or grades to measure performance, and not whether we focus our resources on the many in traditional public schools or the few in pilot program charter schools, but how do we make sure kids in every corner of the state get good educations. Is it by giving them more tests, or is it by appropriating more resources? The right answer might not be the easiest or cheapest answer. It rarely is.

Here’s my full 7 minute interview with Gist.

May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

Citing Legality, Town Might Scrap Tuition Plan

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Barrington will likely not move forward with its controversial idea to let a limited number of students from outside the community pay tuition to attend its high-achieving local public schools, said Barrington School Committee President Patrick Guida, who is also a member of the state Board of Regents.

“There’s a good chance we won’t move forward with this,” he said, noting that he does not speak for the committee, which has a meeting tonight at 7:30. “I don’t know if we’ll vote, we often do things by consensus.”

The school committee was considering offering about 10 out-of-district students the opportunity to pay tuition of $12,800 to attend Barrington schools. The average cost per pupil in Barrington is $12,800.

The program raised concerns because it was potentially discriminatory to students with special needs. At first, Barrington didn’t account for special needs students because they cost more to educate and the committee wanted to profit, not lose money, on the idea. Then, it considered offering slots for special needs students who could pay the cost of their education, which can often be more expensive than the average students because they may require either special services or individual attention in some cases.

Guida said the committee’s own legal research as well as a second letter from Steve Brown of the RI ACLU that questioned the legality of that idea, too.

“Under the circumstances, there is no lawful basis for proceeding with an out-of-town tuition program that would treat students with disabilities differently from other applying students,” said Brown’s letter to Barrington. “We therefore strongly urge the school district to abandon any efforts to charge disparate tuition rates based on special education status.”

RI Future was the first media organization to raise questions about the legality of the tuition idea.

May 24, 2012May 24, 2012

RI Progress Report: Curt Schilling, 38 Studios Turned Don Carcieri Into a Fool and Linc Chafee Into a Leader

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So much for the prospect of 38 Studios taking advantage of film and TV (and evidently video game?) tax credits … it turns out that because Big Schill registered his company in Deleware – no doubt for tax purposes – that he isn’t eligible for tax relief in Rhode Island, reports Ted Nesi. Note to self (and local gov’t leaders): never hire Curt Schilling to do anything that doesn’t have to do with baseball.

Meanwhile, despite Gina Raimondo’s attempts to undercut Gov. Chafee on the 38 Studios financial fiasco, the oft-embattled governor has come out of his political shell and really proven to be a strong leader during this crisis, reports the Associated Press. Forget the bloody sock, Curt Schilling may well go down in RI history as the guy who made Gov. Carcieri look like a fool and Gov. Chafee look like a man.

Meanwhile, in non-38 Studios news, just in case anyone cares about such stuff, Chafee signed the medical marijuana dispensary bill into law yesterday … look for cannabis compassion centers to open in Rhode Island soon.

Turns out RI Future isn’t the only local outfit looking to take advantage of Netroots Nation being in Providence this year … Occupy Providence is planning a four-day sidewalk occupation during the annual conference of progressive activists and journalists.

Every once in a blue moon we agree with Mitt Romney … such as when he said recently that education is the “civil rights issue of our era.” For examples of how this is playing out locally, see our reporting on East Greenwich looking into getting every high school student and iPad while Central Falls and other urban districts can’t afford textbooks for every student and Barrington’s tuition proposal.

It seems as if at least someone appreciates all the hard work I put into RI Future … also today in a landmark day for your favorite ocal progressive news website as our first two paid advertisements are now live. Thanks for all your help in building us into an organization that the free market would want to invest in.