PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Gov. Gina Raimondo said Wednesday she would veto a bill proposed by Rhode Island lawmakers that would restrict the growth of charter schools.
The Democrat told reporters that the bill requiring approval from every city or town that sends students to a new or expanded charter school would “have the practical effect of killing charters.”
The House passed the bill 60-11 in January but the Senate hasn’t voted on it. The governor has never vetoed a bill since taking office last year.
Democratic lawmakers who introduced the charter school bill and others like it this year have said they’re trying to protect traditional school districts. State aid follows each student who attends a charter school but the schools often don’t bear the same costs as traditional school districts.
Raimondo, a charter school proponent, said she agrees that the state’s education funding formula sets up an “uneven playing field” but said she wants to address that by fixing the equation.
Her budget proposal being debated by lawmakers this spring would partially compensate traditional school districts that lose students to charter schools.
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EMPOWERMENT SCHOOLS
Raimondo also said she hopes a new plan to give traditional public schools more say in their operations will boost the state’s lowest-performing schools.
Education Commissioner Ken Wagner detailed the plan to create what’s called empowerment schools in a speech to the General Assembly last week.
A school would be able to get more autonomy in decision-making on everything from textbooks to recess time if two thirds of its teachers and staff vote to become an empowerment school. The schools would also be able to accept students from another town or city based on the school choice model adopted by Massachusetts more than two decades ago.
“The concept is, the school is the unit of change,” Raimondo said Wednesday. She said it would free teachers from district rules that might have tied their hands and allows them to focus on teaching and meeting high standards.
But teacher unions are skeptical of the plan that they believe could deny teachers their due process rights.
Maribeth Calabro, president of the Providence Teachers Union, called it an “end-run around collective bargaining” that could shift personnel decisions away from district policy and contractual obligations.
“Autonomy isn’t a magic wand that you say, poof, you’re an autonomous school,” Calabro said.
Raimondo said the intention is not to disrupt collective bargaining. She emphasized that becoming an empowerment school and opening a school’s doors to students from other districts will be voluntary.
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