The AS220 StinkTank and the House of Unrepresentatives Present

Over a decade ago, the cities of Pawtucket, Central Falls and Woonsocket sued the state, claiming that Rhode Island's method of funding public education was unconstitutional in the way its reliance on the property tax favors rich communities over poor ones. Upheld in Superior Court, but denied in the Supreme Court, the issue has been left to the General Assembly and the Governor to come up with a solution -- and they haven't.

Rather than act, the General Assembly essentially ignored the question, and our Governors have done no better. A student entering kindergarten the year the Court issued its decision would be graduating from high school soon, having spent her whole student career under a system many believe is unfair and unconstitutional.

Finally, this past year, the Assembly formed a special committee of legislators to study the situation. Their first act was to ask this question: with widely varying costs and needs among the cities and towns in Rhode Island, how much does an adequate education cost?

Please join the AS220 Stinktank and a specially appointed panel of its House of Unrepresentatives in a discussion of the issue of school funding. How should the state be funding our schools? Is there a real alternative to the current system? How much more do we have to study the issue?

Proposals to address the current situation will be presented by two witnesses, who will have to defend their proposals in questioning from the panel and from the audience.

The event will be at AS220, 115 Empire Street in Providence, 5:30 to 7 PM, January 18. See you there.

Witnesses:

Bob Walsh, a onetime banker, is the executive director of NEA/RI. With 11,000 members teaching in grade schools and colleges, as well as in state and municipal offices statewide, NEA is one of the state's largest unions.

Stephen Robinson is an attorney in Providence. A former high school teacher in Cumberland, he was the lead attorney in the 1993 suit that successfully challenged the fairness of Rhode Island's system of funding public education. The suit was won, but the state has been wondering ever since how to implement it.

January's educational adequacy forum is just the first of a series of events hosted by the Stinktank. You'll hear discussions here you won't here anywhere else. But should.