A message to Governor Dan McKee:

OUR COMMUNITIES COME FIRST.

REJECT

billionaire-backed charter schools

Listen to our radio ad.

Before we allow the billionaire-backed De La Comunidad Bilingual School to harm Providence, Pawtucket, and Cranston schools, let’s take a look at the facts:

De La Comunidad is being funded by John Arnold, a Texas billionaire with little connection to our community and a long history of using his money to harm public schools across the country.
De La Comunidad and their billionaire backer are trying to avoid community input by doing an end-run around the local legal process. Cranston and Pawtucket have already filed lawsuits to ensure their communities have a voice in this matter – and are not drowned out by the flood of out-of-state billionaire money.
With decreasing enrollment and limited resources, the impacted public schools (which have already developed or are developing dual-language immersion programs) will lose funding for dual language educators, career and technical programs, classroom resources, and student support services.
When public dollars leave district schools, the impact is real – larger class sizes, fewer programs, less stability for educators, and budget shortfalls for cities already under strain.

Contact Governor McKee today

Tell him to protect our schools, students, taxpayers, and cities and towns by:

Withdrawing his support for the De La Comunidad Bilingual School
Supporting legislation that puts a moratorium and cap reduction on charter schools (S2787 and H7415)

Email the Governor

The promise of charter schools has not been fulfilled.

After 30 years of charter expansion, Rhode Island has built an expensive parallel school system that pulls resources out of neighborhood schools who are already facing decreasing enrollment and limited resources. With more than 60 separate education entities – each with its own superintendent and administrative layer – we are spending more on bureaucracy and less on students. That inefficiency directly reduces student services and strains municipal budgets. When public dollars leave district schools, the impact is real – larger class sizes, fewer programs, less stability for educators, and budget shortfalls for cities already under strain. That’s why we are also calling on the Rhode Island General Assembly to pass the charter school moratorium bill and the legislation to lower the cap on charter schools.

Charter expansion has created a structurally inequitable system. Students with the highest needs are less likely to be served in charter schools, while district schools shoulder a disproportionate share of intensive services – with diminished funding. This model drains municipal resources and undermines our ability to deliver equitable education for all students. You cannot build equity by shifting high-need students into underfunded district schools while diverting resources elsewhere. That’s not choice – that’s inequity.

For a generation, billionaire-backed charter expansion has been the status quo in Rhode Island. What began as an idea for small-scale, innovative programs within districts has evolved into a separate, privately managed system that diverts public resources and weakens local control. After three decades, the promise that charters would lift outcomes for all students has not materialized.