PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Foundation and the Annenberg Institute at Brown University are launching a new education committee to study, assess and make recommendations for a new state public education funding formula.
The 18-member Blue Ribbon Commission will be comprised of local education leaders and community nonprofit partners to work on various assessments on the current funding formula and create recommendations on any changes to it. The foundation says recommendations from the commission and Annenberg are intended to inform legislative action to produce an equitable funding formula.
Foundation CEO and President David N. Cicilline and Nora E. Gordon, distinguished professor of public policy at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, will co-chair the new commission. Gordon said in a statement that research shows that states can play a key role in ensuring opportunities for their students, including through how they finance schools.
Local needs “are always changing,” Gordon said, and research on best practices in school finance has evolved since the current formula was written in 2010, hence the need to revisit the formula. Cicilline said in a statement the current system for funding the state’s schools is “broken, unfair, unpredictable and insufficient.”
“It is beyond time to develop a new approach that guarantees equal educational opportunities to every single student in our state,” he said.
Along with holding regular meetings with the foundation and Annenberg, commission members, the foundation says, will engage with their respective constituencies, and the Foundation will lead a broader community engagement effort.
The commission members are:
- Rania Aghia, Rhode Island Teachers of English Language Learners
- Mary K. Barden, National Education Association Rhode Island
- Marcela Betancur, Latino Policy Institute
- Maribeth Calabro, Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals
- Peter Chung, Young Voices
- Chiara Deltito-Sharrott, Rhode Island League of Charter Public Schools
- Michael DiBiase, Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council
- Timothy C. Duffy, Rhode Island Association of School Committees
- Michael D. Hassell, Rhode Island Association of School Principals
- Lisa A. Hildebrand, Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children
- John Kelly, Meeting Street
- Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies, The Economic Progress Institute
- Jeannine Nota-Masse, Rhode Island Superintendents Association
- Paige Parks, Rhode Island KIDS COUNT
- Randy R. Rossi, Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns
- Ramona Santos Torres, Parents Leading for Educational Equity
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 X at @James_Bessette.