In recent days, the charter school movement in Rhode Island gathered new strength, with support from the House and Senate Leadership and a coalition of mayors representing half the population. Described by one national education reform leader as an “unprecedented” coalition of support, these mayors, led by Dan McKee of Cumberland, together with parents, teachers, business leaders, community activists, child advocates, and national education policy leaders have joined forces for better schools in Rhode Island through “Mayoral Academies.”
On Friday, this diverse set of supporters put their names on the line to sign an open letter in support of “Mayoral Academies.” (click to read) The proposal is an expansion of our state’s existing charter school law that would allow mayors to apply to open new charter schools in partnership with leading national non-profit operators (like KIPP, Achievement First, Uncommon Schools, and Democracy Prep) and reduce restrictions on the way these schools operate to help them be more effective.
The proposal, now a budget article with the full support of the House and Senate Leadership, will have its vote tomorrow. Today’s Providence Journal features a story by Cynthia Needham on the effort, noting “Alternative education advocates scored a ‘huge victory’ last week when a key House committee approved mayoral academies — a new class of public schools free from union structures, allowing them to experiment with longer school days and 10-month academic years.” The victory “marks the start of serious education reform in Rhode Island.”
This is a turning point for our state as it seems a political tide is turning.
But like any change, the defenders of the status quo are putting up a fight. NEARI president Bob Walsh says his union will do “everything it can” to stop the proposal, claiming reformers are “motivated by a myth that there’s some magic way to do it better,” as though the way we’re doing things today is somehow defensible — a system where half of Hispanic and African American children fail to graduate from high school, and not a single urban middle school in Rhode Island has a majority of its eighth graders proficient in any subject we measure.
Contrast those remarks with Majority Leader Gordon Fox, a stalwart sponsor and supporter of our effort, who says, “It’s time to think outside the box. As Franklin Roosevelt once said, ‘It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something!’ I think it’s worth trying this mayoral academy.” Rhode Island is lucky to have his leadership in support of this bill!
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