Monday, January 31, 2011

A Thoughtful Pause

Elisabeth Harrison:

Governor Lincoln Chafee has asked federal officials to give Rhode Island flexibility on implementing the part of Race to the Top that relates to charter schools.

Chafee has called for a “thoughtful pause” before opening any new charter schools.

“The main point here is let’s look before we leap,” said Chafee spokesman Mike Trainor. “Governor Chafee believes strongly that before there’s any further expansion of charter schools, we should use the existing 15 charter schools to do some comprehensive, evaluative study of their effectiveness.

Certainly Deb Gist did a lot to promote this idea by going after Highlander charter school last year. Her advocacy wraps all the way around to being indistinguishable from an attack.

What I'd really like to see is an analysis of Blackstone Valley's finances. Where's their money coming from, and what will the long term impact on Lincoln and Cumberland's budgets be? It is a big school in relation to those towns.

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