PROVIDENCE — The House Finance Committee has cut $1.5 million in proposed aid for two new charter schools, including the controversial mayoral academy in Cumberland which ran into union resistance because its teachers would not be paid prevailing wages or have the opportunity to gain tenure protection.

Both schools had planned on a fall opening after the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education approved their charter applications two weeks ago. Now their futures appear dim, at least for the coming academic year.

“It’s off the table,” said Steve Nardelli, executive director of the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools. “There’s no money in there.”

Angelo Garcia, director of operations for the planned Segue Institute for Learning, a middle school that would serve students in Central Falls, said he was disheartened by the Finance Committee’s decision and said that this was the school’s second attempt to open. It had applied for a charter in 2007, only to be turned down for financing.

“I’ve been left at the altar twice,” Garcia said Thursday. “This school has been a real exercise in grass-roots support and community organization.”

Although he knows it’s a long shot, Garcia said that the school’s supporters are still trying to persuade the legislative leadership to reinstate the $720,000 needed to open with 60 sixth graders this fall.

“It’s a tough year,” he said. “We knew that going in. But in the grand scheme of things, we were hoping that this money wouldn’t be viewed as making a big difference in the state budget.”

Meanwhile, the backers of the mayoral academy, which would be run by Democracy Prep, a Harlem-based charter school, refuse to give up hope. Mayor Michael McKee of Cumberland, who chairs the Rhode Island Mayoral Academy Board, noted that the state budget for the next fiscal year isn’t a done deal until the House and Senate take it up next week.

“My impression is that the leadership is very much on board,” McKee said Thursday. “I want to talk with them before I take the leap to say there will be no funding.”

“The budget isn’t done yet,” said Angus Davis, a regent and a strong advocate of the mayoral academy. “We think this is critically important in our competition for additional federal funds.”

Both Davis and McKee said that large sums of federal monies will be jeopardized if Rhode Island doesn’t expand the number of charter schools. No new ones have been authorized since 2004.

Last week, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that states that block charter schools threaten their ability to receive aid under the Race to the Top program, a $5-billion initiative that rewards innovation in education.

According to Davis, the U.S. Department of Education recently awarded Rhode Island $130 million to pay for new educational initiatives, and yet Governor Carcieri spent most of that money on maintaining existing programs. He did, however, set aside $1.5 million for new charters.

“We think these [charter] schools are critically important in our competition for federal funds,” Davis said. “The feds want us to spend money on this.”

lborg@projo.com