The Charter School Scandal

by Karly Eberly 

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND--Little hands moved with  excitement as a crowd of children erupted onto the tree-lined side walk. They shrieked joyfully. Bells clanged at Alan Shawn Feinestein (ASF) Elementary on Broad Street. Shop owners and members of the community looked on fondly, cheering as the children went by. 

This was the Feinstein school's annual walkathon. Many of the children's parents and grandparents had also attended ASF Broad Street. "It's very much a community," said Maribeth Calabro, president of the Providence Teachers Union. "It's one of those places." A place where the majority of students still walk to school. The Rhode Island Department of Education is closing ASF Broad Street Elementary School this Spring– a school Calabro described as "the only true remaining community school." According to Calabro, this closing of a tight-knit community school may not be a coincidence. 

In November 2019 the Providence School Board was stripped of their authority following a state takeover of the school district. The takeover was led by Rhode Island Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green. Three years later, critics say little has improved under the commissioner’s “Turnaround Action Plan." Meanwhile five new Providence charter schools have opened their doors. 

A charter school is a tuition-free, publicly funded school that operates independently from the state and school district. Rhode Island's first charter school opened in 1997, and 22 charters operate today. According to Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sam Bell, the push to privatize public schools is national. Critics contend that charter schools lead to increased segregation and inequity by race and economic status. Advocates of charter schools say they offer more choices and higher quality education. 

Maribeth Calabro, president of the Providence Teachers Union and educator at Nathanael Greene Middle School, believes the state ordered the controversial closing of ASF Broad Street Elementary in order to open a new charter school in its place. This is what happened  with Perry Middle School in 2010. The state declared the school uninhabitable and three years later reopened the renovated school as an Achievement First charter school. 

The closing of the middle school had faced similar opposition from the community in 2010. ASF Broad Street Elementary is one of two schools controversially scheduled to close this Spring. The other is Carl. G. Lauro Elementary.

According to Catharine Sully, a physics teacher at Hope High School with over eighteen years of experience, many of the policies the Rhode Island Department of Education has enacted following the state takeover  seem to be setting the Providence Public School District up for failure. "A lot of people I respect have a strong feeling that Infante-Green and others want charter schools to be the way," Sully says. 

The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, a nonpartisan and nonprofit research organization, released an analysis of charter schools in Rhode Island in June 2021, advising the state to support new charter schools and the expansion of existing charter schools. This analysis considered out-performance of peer districts in previously low-performing areas of the state. 

Senator Bell, who took an interview while riding his bicycle from one meeting to another,  advocates for improving public education under public management. 

In 2019 Bell was quoted calling for the abolishment of Achievement First in Rhode Island, citing cases of abuse in their New Haven location. The Independent posted a video of Morgan Barth, the former head of Achievement First Amistad High School in New Haven, shoving a student. GoLocal Providence reported that Bell's comment came in the wake of former Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza  suggesting the possibility of closing a charter school to allow Achievement First to expand. 

Senator Bell maintains that serious human rights violations have occurred at Achievement First.

Maribeth Calabro believes charter schools don't offer the same accessibility as traditional public schools. According to Calabro, they suspend students at a higher rate and don't offer the same breadth of newcomer English classes or special needs classes.

US News & World Report reports that ninety percent  of students at 360 High School are economically disadvantaged while less than 1% of students across Achievement First's Providence charter schools are economically disadvantaged. “The barrier to get your kid into a better high school in Providence is very high,” says 360 High-School physics teacher Catherine Sullivan. For a lot of parents struggling with housing insecurity or putting food on the table, forms and applications for specific schools often get missed in communication. 

Sullivan describes the distribution of students across some schools as a form of segregation, even within the public school system itself. Classical High School, a test-only public school, has 19 percent fewer minority students and 31 percent fewer economically disadvantaged students compared to 360 High School. Public school teachers worry this disparity will be exacerbated by creating more charter schools. 

Advocates of charter schools, however, believe they allow for more innovation, specialization, and community engagement. Achievement First's Providence Charter Schools outperformed their peers both within Rhode Island and compared to Massachusetts, one of the best school systems in the country.

Education Commissioner Angelica Infante Greene declined to comment on whether the State plans to “charterize” more schools.

Meredith Calabro maintains that a true public school teaches everyone, takes every student, and has no lotteries. She argues that  Achievement First is therefore not  a true public school. “We are not the same,” Calabro comparing her school with charters. She shook her head and said the words a second time. With stress rising among teachers, and more than 200 educators having left the Providence Public School District this year alone, teachers’ ears are tuned to  rumors of “charterization.”