RI mayors embrace change in the schools

By Jim Stergios
December 21st, 2008

Mayor Dan McKee of Cumberland, RI (my hometown!) had a great piece last week in the Providence Journal that is worth sharing. McKee, together with the mayors of Warwick, Pawtucket, Cranston, North Providence, Central Falls, and Johnston, and three other top local RI officials, is advancing an exciting idea called “mayoral academies.” The academies are regional charter schools that cross urban and suburban lines.

What makes this effort really exciting politically is that these RI leaders are expressing the same message as Mayors Fenty, Bloomberg, and Booker — they are not content to leave the leadership of the schools in the hands of superintendents. They know mayors have to play a critical role in school reform. Congrats to the RI mayors because it seems like they are on the glide path to making the mayoral academies a reality.

Across the country, it is becoming increasingly clear that the real reform game is at the local level. That is what seems to escape all of Governor Patrick’s policy people. RI has a long way to go before it catches up to us, but the strong role of the mayors bodes well for the Ocean State’s schools.

Read the full-throated call for change in the ProJo piece below — and for a just a minute imagine in Massachusetts mayoral support for charter schools at this level.

The whole country is desperate for a renaissance in public schooling. At the Democratic National Convention, Mayor Cory Booker of Newark boldly stated that “we have been wrong on education, and it’s time to get it right.” Booker noted that he has been “practically tarred and feathered” by teachers-union leaders for even broaching the subject of new public-school options. In the past year, a number of Rhode Island’s mayors and legislative leaders have been treated similarly.

But we are on the right side of history.

Recently, President-elect Obama outlined his plan for “a new era of accountability in education,” including a substantial “Innovative Schools Fund.” Rhode Island is now uniquely positioned to support our next president’s bipartisan policy direction and reap the benefits of a historic investment.

In Rhode Island, nationally significant opportunities rarely cross our border to present themselves at our doorstep. When they do, we should celebrate and embrace them, even if entrenched special interests are working to lock them out.

Mayors and town managers have a plan to open new, high-performing regional public schools in Rhode Island. As has been widely reported, these public schools, known as mayoral academies, would be a unique partnership between municipal leaders and the very best non-profit public school operators in the United States.

And also:

A number of mayors and state representatives have begun visiting these high-performing public schools in places like New York, Hartford and Boston. What they have seen has been nothing short of extraordinary. The mayoral-academy plan has received national praise and attention from education experts but scorn from the protectors of our state’s status quo.

Meanwhile, rumor back here in Massachusetts is that Governor Patrick is considering a cap on charters in financially struggling localities. Never trust rumors, but, if true, he can kiss the self-styled moniker of “the education governor” goodbye.