PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island House Minority Leader Michael Chippendale, a Republican representing District 40 in Glocester, Coventry and Foster, says he plans to submit legislation on behalf of the House Minority Caucus to help streamline some unfunded, costly state education mandates on Rhode Island school districts – many of which he says do not directly enhance the core education mission or services provided to students.
Chippendale said the legislation came into form after time spent listening to school committees, including the Warwick School Committee, which provided a comprehensive list of concerning mandates. He says that eliminating certain unfunded mandates would provide fiscal autonomy to school districts, allowing local resources to fund learning programs and tools that better service student needs.
“Every legislator on both sides of the aisle hears loudly from their communities about the impact of unfunded state mandates,” said Chippendale. “While our municipalities struggle to balance their budgets, just as the state does, it seems we place more and more of the financial burden on them, unfairly forcing them to spend more of their scant resources on compliance. We simply cannot view the transfer of a burden as a remedy to a funding challenge. We must take a hard look at many of these mandates and reform these state-imposed requirements while prioritizing and supporting core educational needs. The legislature needs to show our communities, in bipartisan fashion, that we hear their pleas.”
Chippendale said that with Rhode Island’s current fiscal crisis, more strain will be placed on the state education funding formula, and thus on the backs of an already stressed tax base. He says the legislation would allow school districts to provide needed property tax relief, while at the same time, incentivize the state to fully fund programs that are necessary and effective. The legislation would allow local school districts to opt out of programs and certain spending required by RIDE, that are not fully funded.
Chippendale, who has served the residents of District 40 since he was first elected in November of 2010, gave examples of some of the target mandates using figures from the Warwick School Department.
On curriculum, the department estimates mandates have cost $925,000 as the state legislature forces school districts to replace entire curricula with the most expensive materials from only a shortlist of “approved” providers.
On transportation, the Warwick School Department sees a $3.9 million expense for Statewide Transportation – a contractor that has admitted to being the costliest.
“It would be fiscally responsible to allow school districts to source the most economical transportation company,” noted a release on the initiative.
The district estimates a $13,840,000 expense for out of district tuition as Rhode Island towns pay for students to attend out-of-district CTE programs. The state, Chippendale notes, fails to track whether or not the students actually stay in the programs, effectively allowing transfers for non-academic reasons.
Finally, SATs & PSATs are estimated to cost Warwick an additional $54,000.
Chippendale notes that Rhode Island is one of only a handful of states that require all students to take the tests, artificially lowering state test scores as many students have no intention of attending college.
More wasted money on union educators with no results based metrics.