Get Herald RSSJust in case you skip over the Providence Journal at breakfast, the local press has been giving considerable attention to the education budget proposal by Republican Governor Don Carcieri '65 for 2005. At the heart of the controversy is a $7.9 million decrease in direct education funding, which will likely result next year in the layoff of teachers throughout the state.
A spokesperson for Carcieri noted that the "budget plan makes the painful decisions needed to balance our budget and put us on the road to financial stability."
Mona Delgado, an administrative assistant in Brown's Italian Studies department, has a daughter at Providence's Nathanael Green Middle School, which is ranked 38th out of 54 middle schools by Rhode Island Monthly magazine. At this school, 82 percent of students are eligible for a subsidized lunch.
According to Delgado, Nathanael Green's art teachers, music teachers, social workers and guidance counselors have been notified that they might not return in the fall. She has taken an active role in the budget debate and has helped to organize a protest rally at the State House on April 29 to ask Carcieri to reconsider his education budget proposal.
She stated that "there is an immediate goal of restoring educational programs that have been lost ... (but) we're in it for the long haul."
At stake, then, is the short-term conflict between balancing the budget and maintaining adequately staffed schools. But in terms of long-range planning, Carcieri ought to demand in return that the schools take steps to improve by making substantive changes in their curricula and administrations.
While there are good arguments to be made for a national overhaul of the public education system, such as a 51 percent national high school graduation rate, Rhode Island's public school system is above average in funding. Per-pupil expenditures are seventh-highest in the nation, and when compared to average workers' wages, teachers' salaries are second-highest in the nation.
When one considers additionally that Rhode Island's property taxes are fifth-highest in the nation, it is not surprising that some residents are reluctant to continue spending more on public education, particularly considering that 20 percent of the state's children attend private schools.
But there is evidence that when used wisely, additional funding can make a difference. In 1996, Richard Murnane, professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and Frank Levy, professor of urban economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reported on an experiment in Austin, Texas ,in which 15 poorly performing schools, with predominantly minority populations, were given $300,000 each per year for five years. At the end of this time, 13 of the 15 schools had failed to raise their performance. Based on a simple analysis of the experiment, one might conclude that increased funding does not improve performance.
But what is interesting about the outcome is that two of the schools improved dramatically. The 13 schools that had failed to improve had hired more teachers and made classes smaller. But they proceeded to teach the same curriculum in the same way. School leaders made few changes outside the classroom.
The two schools that improved dramatically used the money to decrease class size as well, but also brought in a curriculum normally used for gifted and talented students. They improved health services, which made a measurable impact on student attendance, and invited parents to become more involved in school budget and hiring decisions.
Providence's public charter schools present the type of innovation that was shown to improve performance in this Texas study. They are smaller schools that have more flexibility to their curriculum and the way funding is allocated.
Jefferey Neal, Carcieri's press secretary, noted in an e-mail that $7.5 million in increased funding was given to public charter schools. He wrote, "Charter schools offer an alternative public education choice for parents and students, often focusing on innovative models for teaching disadvantaged students. Of the 1,725 Rhode Island students currently enrolled in charter schools, 80 percent live in the urban communities of Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls, and 63 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch."
Charter schools, however, only serve about 1 percent of the total public school population. Since 99 percent of Rhode Island public school students are not served by charter schools, it is understandable that parents are preparing to protest the governor's budget proposal. But parents should also demand that school administrators and teachers make the significant changes necessary to improve school performance.
There is a great deal of information posted on the Providence school system's Web site about why the system need more funding to support increases in teacher's salaries and benefits. But I could find no prominent statement of purpose or detailed plan for improving the curriculum and social services on this site.
In a recent conversation about this issue, Assistant Professor of Education John Tyler said, "What you really want to ask is, How much do I need to spend per pupil to give them an adequate education?"
For children who are not native English speakers or live with difficult socioeconomic circumstances, this is exactly the question that needs to be asked. And if there is a way to reorganize that will result in improving public school performance, we as a society should find the money to fund that reorganization.
The Brown Progressive Social Network has organized a benefit concert at the Hourglass Cafe on April 27 to raise awareness about this debate and to publicize the April 29 protest at the State House.
Scott Ewing '05 doesn't just read the Providence Journal horoscopes.
