patrick guida – RI Future

There are, at least, three major conundrums that need to be addressed before Barrington can move forward with its proposal to offer out-of-district students to attend the high-performing school district if they can afford to pay tuition.

The most obvious are the legal issues, and we detailed them yesterday. The public school system will need to devise either a formula or an admissions process by which it can demonstrate it is not discriminating against students with special needs – or, in other words, students that cost more money to educate than the average student. And, as of yesterday, Barrington had yet to even consult a lawyer, though Patrick Guida, both the chair of the local school committee and the vice chair of the state board of regents, told me the idea has been kicking around since January.

The second issue that must be addressed are moral and/or political and concern selling off the commons. By default, the government of Barrington will be offering up the fruits of its local tax base to a select group of citizens: those who can afford it. Maryellen Butke, the executive director of RI-CAN summed this up well, saying:

“What we need to work towards is ensuring all our students in every community, regardless of their income level or background, have access to a ‘Barrington’ education. Those who don’t have the means to move to a high performing community like Barrington or pay the $12,800 in tuition deserve access to a high quality public education as well.”

But there’s also a potential budget problem. In Rhode Island, don’t forget, the money follows the student. So not only would Barrington get a tuition check from the private sector parents, it would also get a check for the same amount from the state of Rhode Island. And if that student came from Providence, that school district would lose $16,600, its average cost per pupil.

It’s likely that the preponderance of students who apply to pay tuition to go to Barrington will be from the East Side, Rumford or Bristol (and why not Swansea?). If even just four of the 10 students selected are from just one district, that town just lost the price of a teacher but probably not enough students to downsize accordingly.

Not so fast, the state Department of Education tells a member of the Barrington School Committee after learning this morning that the district is considering allowing a limited number of students to attend the town’s high-performing schools if they can pay tuition to the public school system.

“They’d be smart to get a legal opinion first,” said Elliott Krieger, a spokesperson for RIDE. “We’re concerned with the equity and access of all students in general.”

Keiger said he first learned of the proposal this morning via an article in the Providence Journal, in which it was reported that Barrington is considering making ten slots available to families willing to pay $12,800, the per pupil cost of educating a child in Barrington, in tuition to attend school there.

Patrick Guida, the chair of the Barrington School Committee as well as the vice chair of the state Board of Regents, said there are potential legal issues to grapple with before the district could put the plan into effect, such as whether the plan would effectively discriminate against students with special needs or even those who couldn’t afford to pay the tuition.

“If there are any legal issues we would cancel the whole thing,” he said, but added: “By virtue of us making this opportunity available, we ought to have some opportunity for discretion.”

One way the school district may accommodate for students with special needs, Guida said, is to offer an additional two slots to students with special needs if a family was willing to for the cost of their child’s education. Special needs students can cost much more to educate than the average student, ranging anywhere from $16,000 to $100,000, Guida said.

The proposal is still very much on the drawing board and the schools have still not gotten a legal opinion from its solicitor, Guida said.

He said he spoke with Krieger about the plan this morning, but has yet to discuss the matter with Deborah Gist, the commissioner of education. Krieger said Gist is out of town and won’t be available until Monday.

“I wouldn’t say I didn’t talk to anyone at RIDE about it,” he said. When asked who he spoke with, he said, “I’m not at liberty to say.”

Tim Duffy, the executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, said Lincoln is considering a similar proposal and that is not unlike the mayoral academy in Cumberland set up by Mayor Dan McKee, that serves students from Cumberland as well as neighboring towns.

Some worry that the proposal could start a trend of affluent suburban communities with high performing schools drawing away from less-affluent districts the students whose families can afford to pay the tuition costs, thus exacerbating the divide between education in affluent and poor communities.

“What we need to work towards is ensuring all our students in every community, regardless of their income level or background, have access to a ‘Barrington’ education,” said Maryellen Butke, the executive director of RI-CAN, a group that supports public education reform and school choice. “Those who don’t have the means to move to a high performing community like Barrington or pay the $12,800 in tuition deserve access to a high quality public education as well. RI-CAN supports giving access to great public schools to all Rhode Island kids.”

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