Headline says it all, in today’s Providence Journal:
PROVIDENCE — Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in Washington on Monday that Rhode Island may be putting itself at “at a huge competitive disadvantage” for securing federal stimulus dollars.
The General Assembly’s proposed 2010 budget eliminates $1.5 million that Governor Carcieri wanted to spend to open two new charters — a middle school in Central Falls and the state’s first “mayoral academy” in Cumberland.
“Places like Rhode Island that are thinking about underfunding charters are obviously going to put themselves at a huge competitive disadvantage going forward. So we don’t think that’s a smart thing for them to do and we’re going to make that very, very clear,” Duncan told an audience of more than 3,000 people when he was asked about Rhode Island during a question period at the National Charter Schools Conference.
“Where states are considering underfunding charters, as appears to be the case in Rhode Island, they’re placing themselves at a strategic disadvantage for Race to the Top money. They’re going to hurt their chances,” he added moments later, according to U.S. Education Department officials.
The full story about Secretary Duncan’s comments on education reform in Rhode Island appears here.
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