PROVIDENCE – In a unique campaign announcement Wednesday, former CVS Health Corp. executive and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Helena B. Foulkes said, if elected, she would only serve one term as Rhode Island governor if student performance across the state didn’t improve under her watch as the state’s top elected official.
Foulkes in a brief campaign video said children across the state “have suffered so much” from the COVID-19 pandemic. She cites the most recent Rhode Island Common Assessment System test scores, where only 33.2% of students met or exceeded expectations in English language arts and literacy during the 2020-21 statewide assessment. In math, it was “even worse,” Foulkes said, with the data showing just 20.1% of students either meeting or exceeding expectations.
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As part of her campaign, Foulkes is proposing that the state make a $1 billion investment in public schools. She is pledging to make available, if elected, before and afterschool programs to help students recover from learning loss prompted by the pandemic, increase mental and behavioral health services within schools, and invest more in teachers, school buildings and enrichment.
However, Foulkes said if school children across Rhode Island aren’t back on track by the end of her term in 2026, if elected, “I won’t seek re-election.”
Foulkes is facing a bevy of Democratic candidates for the September primary. That field has incumbent Gov. Daniel J. McKee, current R.I. Secretary of State Nellie M. Gorbea, former R.I. Secretary of State Matt Brown and past gubernatorial candidate Dr. Luis Daniel Muñoz. Ashley Kalus, who operates Chicago-based company Doctors Test Centers that administered COVID-19 tests and vaccinations across Rhode Island, is the lone Republican candidate running for governor.
Responding to Foulkes’ new campaign announcement, Gorbea said Wednesday in an email “Our kids’ education is way too important for consultant-driven gimmicks.”
Muñoz in an email said his campaign is “laser focused” on programmatic changes and “band-aid fixes aren’t enough.” He said if elected he would restructure the state’s school funding formula, which currently serves only to concentrate poverty in struggling districts, and also restructure the state’s Rhode Island Promise program involve integrating all Rhode Island jobs training programs into the state’s free-tuition program at the Community College of Rhode Island.
“We have to create opportunities for the generations our state has already failed by expanding [Rhode Island] Promise to include job training programs and adult education,” Muñoz said. “As a graduate of Central Falls High School, I am the only candidate who can speak directly to what it’s like to attend our failing public schools and the effect it has on students.”
Muñoz also said he will address education matters through action steps, such as creating a statewide initiative to conduct strategic round table discussions with every municipal school committee. He said he will not wait “until the next election cycle to start working.”
Kalus in an emailed statement accused state Democrats’ policies as being responsible for the “collapse of our state’s education system,” and that Foulkes’ push to improve education is “is nothing more than an empty promise from a party that has trapped children in failing schools for generations.”
Kalus said she, if elected, will create access to an education in Rhode Island “a constitutional right” and it will be the key to unlock the state’s potential.
“We must promote school-choice, increase funding for public schools, pay our teachers more, and invest in technical education,” Kalus said. “When I say I will be the education governor, I mean it.”
Kalus and Gorbea did not respond to PBN’s question as to how they will respectively address education matters if improving public education in Rhode Island takes longer than four years if elected. McKee’s and Brown’s respective campaigns did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.
(Update: Adds additional comment from Muñoz in 10th paragraph)
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
