Despite Rhetoric, School Leaders Stand with Undocumented Community Members, Guest MINDSETTERS™
Guest MINDSETTERS™ Capellan, Chiappetta, Garcia, Nora, Sheehan, Carpenter, Shepherd
Despite Rhetoric, School Leaders Stand with Undocumented Community Members, Guest MINDSETTERS™
Our community is this and so much more. The families we serve are wonderfully diverse. It’s part of what makes our small part of the world so strong. The vast array of perspectives our students and their families bring is what we believe will make tomorrow better than today. Although, recently many of those perspectives have become harder to hear.
Among calls about bus schedules and school vacation dates are calls about immigration. Current events have shaken many in the communities we serve to their core. Every day, we worry about the fear our students have for their loved ones, friends, neighbors, and themselves. From our experience, we know, that regardless of difference, whether it be economic status, race, or anything else that makes a child unique, that every student deserves a high-quality education. Every child - even if the thing that makes them unique is their immigration status.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTOur schools are home to the workforce of tomorrow. One with a legacy rich with cultural diversity. DACA (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy) has given new meaning to the American Dream. Right now, DREAMers have come under attack. Our young people, many of whom came here as infants or small children and have only ever known America as their home, could face immediate deportation. Our students - future doctors, scientists, teachers, leaders, and innovators - are facing a future where they could be separated from their parents, not knowing whether they will ever be reunited. A future where they could be forced to leave their college and career dreams behind. A future of complete uncertainty.
We believe that every member of our community deserves to grow to their full potential and right now, the future contributors to our society who are destined to usher in tomorrow’s discoveries are sitting in our classrooms, frightened about what is to come. When times are difficult, communities band together and so, as leaders in our community we say: We stand with you. We are committed to standing in solidarity with every member of our community because a strong community is one that challenges us to grow.
Victor Capellan, Superintendent, Central Falls, Jeremy Chiappetta, Executive Director, Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy, Angelo Garcia, Founder/Head of School, Segue Institute for Learning, Julie Nora, Director, International Charter School,Carolyn Sheehan & Kyleen Carpenter, Executive Director and Head of School, Blackstone Academy Charter School, Toby Shepherd, Executive Director, Nowell Leadership Academy
Trump's Win - What Does it Mean for Rhode Island?
Jennifer Duffy
Cook Report
"We don't really know what a Trump presidency means for the nation, never mind the smallest state. One of the unintended consequences of last night's results is that Sen. Jack Reed won't be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Chalk that up as a loss for RI."
Pam Gencarella
Head of Ocean State Taxpayers' Association
"Trump’s win means that his signature issue, illegal immigration, could have a big impact on RI, hopefully reversing our course as a sanctuary state and saving the state taxpayer millions of dollars. While we agree with his 'repeal and replace' Obamacare stance, we have no idea what that means to the RI debacle known as UHIP. It is not a stretch to believe that federal funding for this kind of system will be off the table so, will RI be stuck with this massively expensive system that still doesn’t work and that is expected to cost another $124 million to fix?
Trump's belief that there is significant fraud in the Food Stamp program and the policies that may come from that belief could have a negative impact on RI's local economy since there are businesses in certain cities that rely heavily on this program, fraud and all. On the upside, we may be able to ditch the UHIP program if there is significantly less need for processing welfare program requests (ie. Medicaid and food stamps) resulting from fewer illegal immigrants and less fraud. While we are ambivalent about his touted child care policies, if enacted, it may force our legislators to revisit the ever growing state cost of subsidies in this area and possibly reduce the fraud and abuse in this system."
Kay Israel
Professor at Rhode Island College
"With a Republican President and Congress, Rhode Island will probably be excluded from the 'fruits of victory."
The congressional delegation will be able to vocally make their presence felt, but in the long term it's more symbolic than substantive.
For Rhode Island it's a matter of holding on and waiting until '18 or '20 and a surge in Democratic influence."
Jennifer Lawless
Professor at American University
"The RI congressional delegation just became even less powerful than it was. With unified government, Trump doesn’t need to quell Democrats’ concerns or acquiesce because he’s worried about a Democratically-controlled Senate.
His appointments will reflect that. His executive orders will affect that. And the conservative policy agenda he puts forward will affect that."
Len Lardaro
Professor at University of Rhode Island
"Well there's a few things -- because there's not going to be gridlock, that's a big difference if it had been Hillary and a GOP Congress, in which nothing would got done. We'll at least get a half a billion in infrastructure that's going to pass which will have an impact.
I think you'll see there will be reduced reliance on government nationally -- and that's where we'll stick out like sore thumb. We've relied way too much on government -- and our government is highly inefficient and ineffective. Maybe, just maybe, in this who cycle of things we might be forced to be small and more efficient for once.
A couple of other things -- interest rates jumped. The one to follow is the ten year government bond rate -- which is tied to mortgages. It went from 1.7% to 2.05% in one day. The point is -- if the ten year stays high, mortgage rates will start going higher -- and in the short time people will run to re-finance.
That's the short term impact -- but then if rates stay hight, that will make mortgages more out of reach. And we just passed a bond issue to limit open space -- housing has limited upside here.
The next thing -- the Fed Reserve will go ahead with tightening next month. A strong dollar will hurt manufacturing. When the dollar is strong our exports become more expensive overseas.
Our goods production sector -- manufacturing and construction -- in the near term will do a little better, but as time goes on will be more limited. But something you won't hear, is there are lags in fiscal policy, of six months to year. So we won't really see the effects until the third our fourth quarter of 2017, going into 2018."
Mike Stenhouse
RI Center for Freedon and Prosperity
"As the unbelievable turned into reality this morning, it struck me that the presidential election was not really all about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. It was about a fed-up people, revolting against a corrupt system - the "beast" - that relentlessly favors insiders. Hillary personified the beast, while Donald personified the slayer.
Sadly, based on election results in our state, Rhode Island's version of the beast lives on. I fear our political class has not learned the lessons from the Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump movements - and will continue with their government-centric, anti-family, anti-business status quo."
Kristina Contreras Fox
VP of Young Democrats of America
"A Trump Presidency means the validation of the ugliest part of America. In RI, as with the rest of the country, the hammer of his hatred will fall hardest on minority communities. Being a blue state doesn't make us immune from this danger.
Trump won over 35% (39.5) of the vote here! We need to look in the mirror, and not lie about what the reflection shows us. No more hiding underneath a blue blanket. I expect those who claim Democratic values to be true to those values. The gulf between words and actions have turned into fertile ground for Trump's message to grow here in RI. If you call yourself a Democrat, if you claim to stand in opposition to Trump, now is the time to prove it. Show up and fight back."
