"There's a concern about where the money is going," says Rep. Paul W. Crowley, D-Newport, deputy chairman of the finance committee.

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, June 24, 2005

BY JENNIFER D. JORDAN
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- The powerful House Finance Committee stuck with Governor Carcieri's proposal to boost school financing by just 2.2 percent, allocating $666 million to education in next year's budget being hammered out in the General Assembly.

For the second year in a row, it mirrored the governor's spending plan for schools. In previous years, the General Assembly has broken with the governor to give cities and towns more school aid than he sought.

"The message we are trying to send to school districts is no more business as usual," said Rep. Paul W. Crowley, D-Newport, who is deputy chairman of the finance committee.

Lawmakers have become frustrated, according to Crowley. They feel that the state's investment in schools has been so broad that lawmakers have been unable to see tangible results, Crowley says.

"There's a concern about where the money is going," he said. "Is it just going into health-care and retirement benefits for teachers, or is it going to services for students?"

Crowley says Rhode Island needs to negotiate a single state contract with teachers or set some standards for benefit packages.

"We aren't going to keep investing in a system we have no control over," he said.

This perspective angers school superintendents such as Catherine M. Ciarlo, who runs the Cranston school system and says she has been counting on additional state aid for next year.

Earlier this year, she had to cut next year's budget from $121 million to $118 million, laying off 10 elementary teachers and making other painful reductions, Ciarlo says.

Getting $33.9 million from the state is not enough, she says. Unless Cranston receives more state aid, the school budget will be slashed to $115 million.

"We cannot go below $118 million without decimating the school system," Ciarlo said. "We are already at rock bottom at $118 million."

Ciarlo says she is tired of hearing how public schools are failing students, especially since 19 out of Cranston's 23 schools are high performing; the rest are moderate performing. "There are no low-performing schools, and we've done that on a tight budget," Ciarlo said.

"I'm upset with [state officials] because those school systems that have responded and have improved should be rewarded," she said. "Instead, they paint everyone with the same brush."

Tim Duffy, executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, says lawmakers are not fairly allocating state education aid.

The majority of school districts will see a 2-percent increase in their budgets, while two state-run systems -- Central Falls and the Met School, in Providence, receive far more, Duffy says. Central Falls is climbing out of a $8-million deficit and the Met School will get $1.5 million more for next year because its student body has grown.

"The Met increase is about 20 percent, and Central Falls is roughly 15 percent. The urban school districts that are experiencing increases in enrollment are not receiving a commensurate appropriation of state aid," Duffy said. "We're taking care of the schools run by the state, but everyone else is left to fend for themselves."

The state Department of Education takes a more hopeful view of the House's spending plan, however.

While the House version of the bill is only a few thousand dollars more than than the governor's proposal, Education Commissioner Peter McWalters says school districts will get some extra money next year they hadn't counted on.

Districts may be able to save up to $18 million, due to reductions in teacher pensions that the House passed earlier this week, McWalters said. The changes include establishing a minimum reitirment age of 59 and eliminating the 3-percent cost-of-living adjustment.

Advocates for charter schools have their own concerns with the House budget.

While lawmakers lifted a cap of only two charter schools per community (except for Providence which was allowed four), they also extended a moratorium on new charters that was due to run out this year. Instead, House lawmakers want to extend the moratorium through the 2007-08 school year. Rhode Island has 11 charter schools, most of which are in urban districts. South Kingstown is the only surburban community with charter schools and has struggled as tens of thousands of dollars have flowed out of the school system and into the town's two charter schools.

"We don't want to commit to a few more charter schools while we are still sorting out issues we don't have solutions to yet," Crowley said.

Robert Pilkington, president of the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools, disagrees with extending the moratorium.

The new federal law, No Child Left Behind, requires states to offer options to students if their school is found to be low performing, including having the state takeover the school, hiring a private management company or converting it to a charter school and replacing its leaders, Pilkington says.

"This takes the charter option away from everyone as a method to help rescue failing schools," he said.

Career technical programs gain ground in the House budget proposal. Davies Career and Technical Center and the Met School, which are both run by the state, are considered successes by education officials and lawmakers. Crowley said he hopes similar programs open throughout the state, and the House Finance Committee has set aside $400,000 to strengthen career technical course offerings and to investigate possible locations for more vocational schools in the East Bay and South County.

The full House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the budget proposal Monday, when it is expected to pass, said Larry Berman, spokesman for the House. A few days later, the budget goes to the Senate, and finally, to the governor.