As student enrollment in Rhode Island’s public schools continues to decline, schools across the state are facing the prospect of closure in the coming years. Exeter State Rep. Megan Cotter says that should prompt towns across the state to cut costs by creating regional school districts.
In an effort to incentivize that transition, Cotter recently introduced legislation that would triple the amount of state education funding for districts that decide to regionalize.
“When we look at how many districts we have in the state, it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, because we’re not large and we do have declining enrollment,” Cotter said. “So if we have towns and cities build forces together to benefit our children, the state needs to be reliable. We can’t keep asking towns to raise their property taxes to fund education. It’s not sustainable.”
State Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green recently told Ocean State Media that she expects school regionalization to be near the forefront of education issues in Rhode Island in the near future.
“It’s complicated, especially in Rhode Island,” Infante-Green said. “Everybody really loves where they go to school. But it just doesn’t make sense sometimes to have two elementary schools and two districts side-by-side that are half empty. So I think that that’s something that we’re going to be looking at. It will not be easy, but we’re going to have to involve the communities in having those conversations.”
State Rep. Megan Cotter, who represents two regional school districts – Exeter-West Greenwich and Chariho, spoke with Ocean State Media’s Luis Hernandez about why she’s pushing for more resources for school districts that want to regionalize.
Interview highlights
As Newport and Middletown contemplate forming a shared school district, on whether other districts will follow suit
Rep. Megan Cotter: I do because schools are not impervious to electric costs (among other costs). They’re seeing the same costs that you and I are seeing in our households. So I think that they’re asking the taxpayers to pay more money, and their towns – it’s going to get harder and harder to have people swallow that pill of the bill. I think they’re going to have to start being creative and looking at alternative ways to make sure our kids get the education that they deserve.
On how the Exeter-West Greenwich and Chariho School Districts can serve as a model
Cotter: It’s not just a smart move to consolidate costs, it’s a way to bring the communities together to really focus on what is best for the children.
For Exeter-West Greenwich, you obviously have members from Exeter on the school committee and members from West Greenwich. We have something called a five-year rolling average, which I think is a fabulous model. It’s a five-year rolling average of student enrollment. So you pay for the amount of kids that you have, and the five-year rolling average allows for an increase to be small so that you’re not ponying up a ton of money if there’s a big shift in enrollment from one town to the other.
Chariho obviously has Charlestown, Richmond and Hopkinton. And Charlestown pays a little less than the other two towns because Charlestown has fewer children. I think regionalization will look different for every community, and it’s just what is best for your community.
On whether there’s support on Smith Hill for more school regionalization
Cotter: I think right now people are more open now more than ever, because their pupil costs are going up.
Declining enrollment is a real issue that we need to face as a state. People are having less children, but I think we’re going to have extra support.
Then it comes from the superintendents of southern Rhode Island. So they’re reaching out to their legislators and they’re saying, “Hey, let’s take a close look at this bill. Let’s get it done.” Because they’re going to have to make some really tough decisions. And I think the writing is on the wall that this is the direction we need to go in.
