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School Choice Victories (Anna Varghese Marcucio)

If there ever was a time to expect the unexpected, it was last week when Governor Napolitano (D-Arizona) signed three new school choice programs into law, and when the overwhelmingly Democratic Rhode Island General Assembly approved a scholarship tax credit program for low income families.  It was a banner week for school choice advocates, and it came as a welcome surprise.

While Arizona boasts a healthy charter school movement and other forms of school choice, Rhode Island is a relatively new player in this game; and the scholarship tax credit proposal could have been viewed by many to be on the far end (i.e. scary end) of the school choice spectrum.  Yet it sailed through the House and Senate with relative ease.   Thanks in large part to the masterful lobbying effort by Bernard Healey at the Diocese of Providence, as well as the hundreds of phone calls and emails from Catholic and Independent school parents, the program was approved by a legislature that is ideologically opposed to any form of private school choice (fully one-third of the legislature are public school teachers).  So why didn’t the union pursue its now predictable attack on this proposal?  Why didn’t they come out swinging?  What happened? 

Some think it was timing.  It’s been a bad year for unions in Rhode Island.  Relationships have soured; the union has boycotted some legislators, while other legislators have boycotted the union.  Another possible reason might be that the proposal was not a stand-alone piece of legislation; it was a small part of the governor’s budget.  It would have been far more vulnerable had it been introduced as a separate bill.  Another possible reason might be the very real fact that the Ocean State is overwhelming Catholic, and proud of it.  If you weren’t raised in a Catholic school, you have kids in a Catholic school, or you have relatives who work in a Catholic school.  Catholicism and an unhealthy allegiance to the Red Sox is what comes to mind when one thinks of Rhode Island (that and great Italian food).  And it’s the devotion to a good Catholic education that may have won it for Rhode Islanders.

This brings me to my next point: charter schools in Rhode Island vs. private schools in Rhode Island.  The Ocean state has about 11 charter schools currently in operation.  Waiting lists for these charter schools are off the charts, as indicated to me by Governor Carcieri.  The number of kids on waiting lists sometimes exceeds the actual number of kids enrolled in the school.  Clearly there’s demand for more seats, more schools.  Yet there’s been a moratorium on the approval of new charter schools for two years, with no end in sight.  Any attempt to improve the weak charter law is batted down almost immediately.  And we’re talking about public schools here.  Most people would argue that charter schools are a much more palpable alternative than scholarships/vouchers.  That doesn’t seem to be the case in Rhode Island.  And it reinforces my hypothesis that, in Rhode Island, it might have more to do with a generational allegiance to nonpublic education than it is about providing an array of educational options for all families.

Whatever the reasons or the implications, we are thrilled and invigorated by the legislature’s courage in approving this much-needed scholarship program for the children most in need.  It’s good for the kids, it’s good for the schools.  And now the work begins.  Implementation of the program will not be without challenges.  But a small coalition of school leaders and parents was created out of the advocacy effort, and they will be the driving force behind the push to get families signed up, scholarship-granting organizations set-up and businesses in line to make donations.  Congratulations to everyone who worked hard to make history in Rhode Island.

Anna Varghese Marcucio is a director of state projects for the Alliance for School Choice.