EXCLUSIVE: McKee Administration Looking to Return Central Falls Schools Back to Central Falls
Monday, January 30, 2023
Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee sent a subtle message in his State of the State about the future of the two school systems that the state runs.
“The state has intervened in two local school districts. One for too long and one for not long enough to get the job done,” said McKee.
Multiple members of the McKee Administration have confirmed that they are preparing to return control of the Central Falls schools back to the city.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTCentral Falls schools are the worst performing in the state.
In the Central Falls school district, 93% of students failed to meet expectations for all three subjects. In contrast, in Barrington, that number was 40% or lower, according to the 2022 school accountability and improvement results.
Central Falls Mayor Maria Rivera did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
State Takeover — 30 Years of Failure
Central Falls Mayor Tom Lazieh told GoLocalProv.com in 2019 that he lobbied then-Governor Bruce Sundlun in the early 1990s to take over the underperforming Central Falls schools system in hopes of better financial support and stronger educational outcomes, but over two-plus decades later, the former Mayor said the experiment has been an educational failure.
“The state takeover of schools doesn’t mean better quality,” said Lazieh. And he had words of warning about the Providence takeover.
He also called the Rhode Island Department of Education’s management a failure.
Lazieh said, “The state has failed.”
Similarly, Gary Sasse, the former Director of Administration for the State of Rhode Island, said in an appearance on GoLocal LIVE that there was a significant opportunity to improve education in Central Falls and the state failed the children of that city.
“RIDE dropped the ball -- now what's to say that RIDE won’t drop the ball again [in their management of the Providence schools] is a fair question,” said Sasse in 2019.
This story was first published 1/29/23 6:33 PM
Related Slideshow: RI Public School Performance - LEA 2022
The listing is for school districts, individual charters and others can be found HERE.
All of the school districts listed are K-12, except Foster-Glocester which is 6-12
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