R.I.'s new school aid formula: Some will win, some will lose
10:43 AM EDT on Thursday, June 17, 2010
After years of failed attempts, Rhode Island finally has a statewide school-financing formula, its first in two decades.
The complex formula, which was developed by the state Department of Education and researchers at Brown University, goes into effect for the 2011-12 school year and is intended to redistribute about $705 million a year in direct aid to school districts, charter and state-operated schools — without adding a lot of new money to the system.
Critics have been quick to point out that the formula creates a new system of winners and losers, giving more state aid to districts where student enrollments have increased or that serve high numbers of low-income students, while cutting districts that have lost students or serve fewer poor students.
Most urban districts benefit from the new formula. But so do Barrington and East Greenwich, two of the state’s wealthiest communities, largely because of increases in enrollments.
Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist has dismissed complaints that the new approach unfairly penalizes some districts.
“The fact is, right now in our current approach, there are already