Former Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Flanders, now chairman of the Board of Regents, hopes to move forward his agenda for the schools, despite a state budget deficit.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

PROVIDENCE — Six months have passed since former state Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Flanders became chairman of the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education.

In that time Flanders has received a crash course in the problems plaguing public education in Rhode Island — low test scores, inadequate support for urban schools, teacher contract squabbles and unpredictable school financing from the state. All that is topped off by an estimated state budget shortfall of $450 million next year that will require all state departments to trim staff and programs.

Given the fiscal climate, it is unclear to what extent the former judge will succeed in pushing a host of education changes the state Department of Education plans to make, including high school reforms and approving new charter schools.

But Flanders says he hopes to move the education agenda forward next year, including launching a pilot early-childhood program for low-income children.

“It’s easy to be overwhelmed, instead of rolling up your sleeves and taking it one day at a time,” Flanders said in a recent interview at his downtown law firm, Hinckley, Allen & Snyder. “None of us are happy with where we are, and we all want to improve the public education system in Rhode Island.”

Flanders, 58, was appointed to the position by Governor Carcieri in June, replacing longtime Chairman James DiPrete, a career educator. Flanders likes to run an efficient meeting, guiding discussions back to their point and moving along agenda items with alacrity. Flanders is also fond of quoting poetry at key moments, usually getting a laugh from the audience.

Regents attend hours of monthly meetings, serve on academic and financial subcommittees and routinely visit schools. When asked how many hours a week he dedicates to the Regents, Flanders laughed and declined to answer. “I’d get in trouble with my law firm,” he said.

He also meets monthly with the governor to discuss education issues.

“Governor Carcieri knew Judge Flanders could bring a fresh perspective and a new set of eyes to the problems facing Rhode Island’s education system,” said Jeff Neal, spokesman for the governor. “The judge would not be bound to the system as it has been in the past; he’d be able to contemplate a new way of doing things.”

Flanders said that he is impressed with the level of expertise and dedication he has found at the state Department of Education and among his eight fellow Regents, who, like Flanders, serve in a volunteer capacity.

“One impression is that there are a lot of good people dedicating their lives to bettering education, and that includes teachers, unions, school administrators and superintendents, educational cooperatives, parent groups and charter schools,” Flanders said.

“It’s not for want of attention [that many of the state’s public schools are struggling]. Unfortunately, we’re in hard fiscal times.”

Last spring, lawmakers voted to level-fund schools, rather than doling out the 3-percent increase they traditionally give to help districts cover the rising costs of health care and salaries. The decision placed many cash-strapped districts in a bind, since a new property tax cap limits the amount cities and towns can levy to help pay for schools.

Lawmakers said the budget shortfall, estimated at about $150 million for the current year, was partly to blame. They acknowledged they also wanted to send a message to districts that legislators were tired of giving millions to schools that fail to deliver desired results — high test scores and high school graduates prepared for the world of college and work.

In statewide testing last spring, only half of high school juniors — 53 percent — were proficient in English and just 43 percent scored proficient in math.

Flanders said a priority next year will be to advance a plan for a statewide school financing formula. The concept received attention last year, but fell apart at the end of the session when lawmakers realized how expensive it might be.

“We’ve got to establish some stability in the state system of funding education and take some pressure off the property tax,” Flanders said. He has proposed shifting teacher retirement costs from local districts and to the state over the next three years as a first step in having the state assume costs that school districts cannot control, Flanders said.

Carcieri asked Flanders to head a Regents’ task force on teacher contracts, in the hopes of preventing the teacher strikes that occurred in several communities at the start of the school year. Flanders says he hopes to have a set of recommendations ready for discussion by Feb. 1.

Flanders also said he wants to improve teacher training programs, give principals and superintendents more authority and expand early-childhood programs.

“Evidence suggests there is no better investment society can make, especially in urban areas, than in early-childhood education,” Flanders said. “I’d like to see a pilot program in Central Falls or Providence that can build on momentum, on the benefits of high-quality early-childhood programs — not just warehousing these kids. We’ve got to educate people about its importance.”

Despite the gravity of the problems facing the state’s schools, Flanders says they are fixable.

“This is no time to relax, or to say, ‘let’s wait until we are more flush with cash,’ ” Flanders said. “There are so many things we need to do right now. We can’t wait.”

jjordan@projo.com