В Род-Айленде запрет на чартерные школы лишил детей доступа к двуязычному образованию

PROVIDENCE — The leaders of a dual language school that was set to open next year in Providence say they were caught in the crosshairs of Rhode Island’s new ban on charter schools, leaving some children and families without bilingual education options they were hoping for. The three-year charter moratorium, which was signed into law by Governor Dan McKee last month, came after years of furious debate over whether charters should continue to expand in Rhode Island. “I feel like this school was a casualty of longstanding personal and political conflict,” said Joshua LaPlante, the superintendent of De La Comunidad Bilingual School, in an interview with the Globe. LaPlante and the school’s board chair, Carol Aguasvivas, had pleaded with lawmakers not to include the bilingual school in the three-year charter school ban, since it had already received an initial approval from the state in January. They met with McKee and asked him to veto it, citing his longstanding support for charter schools. He signed the bill the next day. “I didn’t think that we were going to have to fight this hard for dual language,” Aguasvivas said. In the workforce, she noted, “Everyone wants you to be bilingual. But how are we going to prepare these children for the future when we’re not giving them the basics to be able to do that?” The school leaders said they are exploring their options, including litigation, now that it’s been blocked from opening. De La Comunidad was planning to open in Providence with 140 students in kindergarten through second grade to start, and then expand over nine years into a K-12 school with more than 600 students from Providence, Pawtucket, and Cranston. The school would have taught both native English and Spanish speakers, with classes taking place in both languages throughout the school day. The goal is for students to become fluent in both languages. “The only population that’s being affected here are the children,” Aguasvivas said. “Because the school was definitely going to make a difference. And the doors were shut on us before we could even open.” The school had the backing of state education commissioner Angélica Infante-Green, and its leaders argued it was meeting the needs of Rhode Island’s exploding population of multilingual learners, the term for students learning English as a Second Language. “We are responsible to going back to those families and telling them that they no longer have a choice,” Aguasvivas said. The fierce opposition to De La Comunidad was not necessarily about the school itself, or any of its planned bilingual programming. Officials in Cranston and Pawtucket argued another charter school serving their cities would pull even more resources from strained public school budgets. Both cities sued to try and block the school from opening after it received preliminary state approval. (The lawsuit is still pending.) The teachers unions that pushed for the charter ban also did not cite any specific issues with De La Comunidad’s curriculum or programming, but said local school districts simply cannot afford to send any more money to charter schools. “They’re laying off large numbers of teachers in some districts,” said Maribeth Calabro, the president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, one of two major unions. “It’s time for a thoughtful pause of charter expansion, period, full stop.” “The dual language is absolutely not the issue,” Calabro added. Tuition at charter schools is paid by the school district where the child lives. Aguasvivas said she understood the need for a charter pause, but said it should not have applied to a school that was already in the pipeline to open. “De La Comunidad Bilingual School was not going to be the one school that was going to take away so much funding that it was going to cripple the entire system,” she said. Brand new charter schools require two approvals by the Rhode Island Council on Elementary and Secondary Education. After an application and hearing process, the preliminary approval allows them to prepare to open, including getting a lease for premises and posting jobs. Once the school is ready to launch, they go back for final approval. Existing charter schools that are expanding require only one vote of the council, which is why the Greene School in West Greenwich — which got a favorable vote from the council on the same day as De La Comunidad — will be allowed to move forward with its plans to open a new middle school during the moratorium. Aguasvivas and LaPlante noted that most children in Rhode Island don’t have access to dual language programs. In the three communities they planned to serve, Providence has dual language programming available to about 10 percent of the total school population, Cranston doesn’t have any, and Pawtucket has only a limited program. “District schools should have dual language programs,” LaPlante said. “But we’re at 30 years of the same conversation, and they’re not there.” Cranston Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse told the Globe the district doesn’t have the money to start a program, and charter schools are making it harder. “Frankly, I would love to start a dual language program,” Nota-Masse said. “I have to cut programs, and I have to cut staff, because of the financial problems municipal districts have. I don’t have the program because I can’t afford it.” She said Cranston lost $8.7 million last school year to charters. “It’s not about that school in particular,” Nota-Masse said of De La Comunidad. “No matter the charter school, the way the funding formula works, every single opportunity a charter has to pull kids away from Cranston, I have to be concerned.” No families were officially enrolled in De La Comunidad yet, as it was slated to be part of Rhode Island’s annual charter school lottery in the spring. But many parents had expressed interest, Aguasvivas said. One of them was Marlena Stachowiak, also a city councilor in Pawtucket, who was hoping to sign her youngest son Truman up for kindergarten at De La Comunidad next fall. “It was definitely something we were looking forward to,” she told the Globe. She hoped to enroll her two older children once the school expanded to middle and high school. One of her sons, 9-year-old Braelyn, had been enrolled in a dual language program in Pawtucket from kindergarten until second grade at Nathanael Greene Elementary School, but he lost access when the program was cut and moved to Baldwin Elementary, she said. The family only speaks English at home, but Braelyn was learning Spanish and using it around friends and neighbors. “It abruptly stopped,” Stachowiak said. “He was really enjoying it. It’s been over two years and it’s slipping away,” she said. Pawtucket Superintendent Randy Buck said the reason the district could not maintain dual language programs at both schools was because of staffing. There are not enough teachers certified in bilingual/dual language to meet the demand, he said. Infante-Green, an enthusiastic supporter of dual language programs who recommended the approval of De La Comunidad’s application last year, did not respond to requests for comment. When her department was considering the application, it received 1,778 letters of support, 99 percent of which were in favor of the school, according to RIDE. The school had been approved for startup funding from the state and other grants worth about $1 million that it now must forfeit, LaPlante said. Another $70,000 in funds came from the Rhode Island Education Collective, an education nonprofit where LaPlante also works. Victor Capellan, the founder and CEO of the collective, said the group’s funding comes from local and national backers including the Papitto Opportunity Connection, Bank Newport, Centreville Bank, The City Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and individual donors. McKee had years ago vowed to veto a charter moratorium. After signing it into law last month, he told the Globe the situation had changed; public school enrollment is dropping, causing serious funding issues. He confirmed that he met with De La Comunidad leaders the day before he signed the bill, but they didn’t change his mind. “If they feel strongly that they have support in the General Assembly, they should go back in the next session,” McKee said. “Go deliver your case.” Steph Machado can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @StephMachado.