The Providence mayor abruptly leaves a State House meeting on the governor's merger proposal of urban school districts.

01:00 AM EDT on Friday, April 14, 2006

BY JOHN CASTELLUCCI
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- Governor Carcieri's bid to build support for his proposal to consolidate three urban school systems into a single metropolitan district fizzled yesterday when the mayor of the city with the biggest school district walked out of a meeting with the governor, representatives of the state education department and Pawtucket and Central Falls officials.

Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline said he left the meeting after realizing that what was contemplated wasn't a serious conversation about public education, but an effort to drum up support for the governor's merger proposal.

Cicilline asserted that the proposal fails to get at the heart of the problem afflicting public education in Rhode Island.

"I made it very clear to the governor that I believed that it was critical and urgent that we address the incredible over-reliance on property taxes to fund public education in this state," he said.

There was nothing new about the difference of opinion between the mayor and the governor. Cicilline has been saying for more than a year that the state's increasing reliance on the property tax to finance public education places an unfair burden on local property owners.

Carcieri's school merger proposal, first raised in his State of the State address in January, has gotten mixed reviews.

What was new about what happened yesterday was the way in which that difference of opinion was expressed, and the acrimony that resulted.

After Cicilline said, "These are complicated issues. They're not going to be solved by press releases and photo ops," Jeff Neal, the governor's spokesman, fired back that "Mayor Cicilline knew fully well that we had informed the press about this meeting, and he knew fully well what the governor had hoped to discuss."

"The governor was disappointed that, knowing what the meeting was about, the mayor decided not to participate after actually coming to the State House. He is disappointed that they did not have an opportunity to discuss the issue and they did not have an opportunity to accomplish anything," Neal said.

The meeting continued after Cicilline left, with Carcieri discussing the merger proposal with Pawtucket Mayor James E. Doyle and Central Falls Planning Department Director Arthur Hansen, who represented Mayor Charles Moreau.

The meeting lasted about an hour. Cicilline left after 10 minutes. Neal said that the discussion wasn't just about merging the Central Falls, Providence and Pawtucket school districts. It was about whether the three communities can find ways to collaborate that will improve the performance of their schools.

Neal acknowledged that the likelihood of any such collaboration taking place would be diminished if Providence decides not to participate. "Obviously, if Providence is unwilling to participate, it makes the project somewhat more challenging," he said.

Although it was announced in a news release, the meeting was closed to reporters. Cicilline and Neal were interviewed afterward -- Neal over the telephone, Cicilline in his office in City Hall.

Neal said the governor's goal in convening the meeting was to develop a consensus about how to foster collaboration among the three urban school districts. He defended Carcieri against the criticism that his proposed fiscal 2007 budget will slash state aid to education, saying that the $49-million increase represented the biggest state aid boost in six years.

But Cicilline accused the governor of stiffing local school systems in a budget that continues the trend of shifting the burden of financing public education from the state to local communities.

He said he believes it is wrong for the governor's office to be relying on Providence to take a leadership role in efforts to improve student performance while unveiling budgets that, in effect, reduce state aid.

"Property taxes are too high in every single city and town in Rhode Island," Cicilline said. "Education represents generally about half the budget of all those cities and towns."

"Unless we address this issue of over-reliance on the property tax to fund public education," he said, "we're not going to be able to develop a system -- a rational system -- for sustaining public education."

jcastell@projo.com / (401) 277-7371