By Providence (RI) Mayor David N. Cicilline
July 26, 2004

Fifty years ago, the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, ruled that segregation in our nation's schools was discriminatory and illegal. That decision characterized such a system as "separate and inherently unequal," and as advancing racism and inequality and failing our youth.

Half a century later, mayors and town managers from across Rhode Island have joined together to speak out on the single greatest civil rights issue of our time — public school funding. In recent years, school funding has often devolved into a class'war pitting wealthy communities against poor communities. The end result has become our own "separate and unequal" system of education. I know this is of concern to many mayors and their cities across the country. Some states have already had court decisions concern changing the funding formula, but not all have been successful in having their state legislature take action. New Jersey may be one of the few states that has begun to address the funding problem through legislative action after a court decision.

Every child has a birthright to a quality, public school education. Equitable school funding is essential to fulfilling this objective. And so committed are we to creating equality in public school funding — and full and appropriate support of our public schools - that we have used our collective voice to urge the Governor and the Rhode Island General Assembly to acknowledge their central role in supporting equity and quality in all public schools, so all children have the same opportunity to succeed. And they have.

Rhode Island, which has among the lowest levels of state support nationwide (we rank 43rd out of 50 and are dropping,), has to pay closer attention to what other states — including neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut are doing — proportionally, providing more state aid for education. Just 10 years ago, Rhode Island was moving towards 60-40 state/local funding. In the interim, we-ve slipped badly. Our state is now paying only about 40 percent of the total cost of our public schools. Since 1995, we have not had a predictable funding formula, and the continued over-reliance on the property tax has led to inequity among local property taxpayers and gaps in resources.

As mayors, you well understand that cities are where resources are strained and the ability to raise taxes the most difficult. This growing reliance on an already regressive property tax — exacerbated by growing unfunded state and federal mandates — creates a situation where nobody wins.

We are demanding that there be a fair, adequate and predictable funding formula, so the state meets this important obligation to our children, and cities and towns are further spared annual budget chaos. We joined forces with the non-partisan experts at the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council to help us craft a means to this end. And we have been outspoken as a coalition.

We had before the Rhode Island legislature two bills: one, a Constitutional Amendment (RI H-8315) that acknowledges the State's support of an adequate and quality public school system; and a second bill (RI S-2654), that creates the framework for a fair, equitable and predictable funding formula. The latter sets a foundation formula based on per-pupil cost, student population and is needs driven, and "extraordinary special education expenditures." As a group, we went before the General Assembly, business and community groups, and the airwaves to present our case. People are listening.

The RIPEC/Mayors Working Coalition represents more than half-a-dozen urban and suburban communities, including Newport, Providence, West Warwick, North Providence, Pawtucket and Warwick. We made the case that geographic borders are artificial; it should matter to every single one of us that every single one of our children can succeed.

The future of this state and its economy, and indeed, this nation, depend upon our children's success; we simply cannot afford to ignore this urgent challenge. Until we acknowledge our collective responsibility to offer all children a good and equitable education, we condemn them, our society and future generations to another separate and unequal system of education.

Epilogue

Since Cicilline wrote this piece, RI S-2654, that creates an improved framework for a foundation formula passed the legislature, and has been signed into law by the Governor of Rhode Island. Also, Cicilline sponsored a policy resolution at the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors on equity and adequacy for education funding that passed unanimously.