Last Thursday, the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education voted to establish two Achievement First charter schools in Providence. Though the supporters of this proposal argue that Achievement First will bring academic success to a school district plagued with low expectations and substandard performance, we remain skeptical. Achievement First schools present a substantial fiscal burden for the city and may also have a negative impact on the English Language Learner population of Providence, which makes up about 20 percent of the student population. For these reasons, we do not support the establishment of Achievement First schools in Providence.
Providence is a diverse community and the ability of Achievement First to fulfill the city's needs is questionable. The Achievement First Bushwick Charter School in Brooklyn, N.Y. lacked a formal ELL program and instead, possibly in violation of federal law, treated its English language learning students as special education students. In the other six Achievement First schools in New York City, English language learning students comprise only 1 to 2 percent of the student body, a disproportionate number considering that they make up 14 percent of students in New York City. Though the student populations of Achievement First schools typically include "at least 10 percent from outside the African-American and Latino communities," according to a Providence City Council Education Subcommittee report, we remain concerned that Providence's Achievement First schools will leave English language learning students behind.
Another point of concern is the financial impact of Achievement First schools on Providence, where public schools have been hit hard by the recession. A subcommittee of the Providence City Council issued a report stating that the opening of Achievement First schools would cost the system somewhere between $3.1 million and $8.7 million. They projected that this would result in the closing of an elementary school and the need to reduce the number of teachers in an already struggling system.
This consequence is a result of the recently instituted fair funding formula, which causes education money to "follow the student." In other words, educating a student in Providence costs around $14,000, but when a student transfers to an Achievement First school, the public school he or she came from is not $14,000 cheaper to run. The per-student cost of education has been calculated to be around $10,000 to $11,000. This extra $3,000 or $4,000 is spent on certain resources for students on which schools will inevitably have to cut back. Considering the school closures and program cutbacks in the past few years, and the fact that Providence is on the brink of bankruptcy, establishing an Achievement First school is a luxury Providence cannot afford.
While the opponents and proponents of charter schools have debated the effectiveness of Achievement First's curriculum and approach, certain details about how the system would affect Providence are less ambiguous. The financial burden of the schools, paired with Achievement First's questionable ability to educate English language learning students, leads us to the same conclusion that many organizations, representatives, public officials and community members have voiced: The Board of Regents should have rejected Achievement First's application.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
