Tuesday, December 13, 2011

RIDE Distributes Disinformation at AF Hearings

The Department of Education provided a handy "Achievement First Charter School Application Overview" at the December 7/8 hearings, including this "Quick Fact:"

3. AF's catchment area will include Providence, North Providence, Cranston and Warwick. In accordance with the statute, all students in application pool will have an equal opportunity to enroll.

This is incorrect in two ways. First, the statue says nothing about equal opportunity to enroll. I can't prove that with a quote, because there is none. This is not how the law has been interpreted in the past by RIDE, for example, Blackstone Valley Prep has a preference for siblings in their lottery.

It is also not true that the AF application offers "equal opportunity to enroll," because it also says nothing specific on the subject, and does call for a preference for low-income students.

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