EDITORIAL: Hiring Peters and Alege Was a Mistake, Fixing Providence Schools Is an Emergency

EDITORIAL: Hiring Peters and Alege Was a Mistake, Fixing Providence Schools Is an Emergency

There were plenty of signs that neither out-going Superintendent Harrison Peters nor Olayinka Alege were the right hires last year. GoLocal chronicled their questionable past practices and judgment in their previous jobs.

What is even more apparent is that Providence Schools are a 40-year ever-worsening failure.

Failure.

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If you need a refresher course, please read the 2019 report by one of the leading academic institutions in the world — Johns Hopkins University.

Since the release of the report, there is every indication that the Providence school system — that is either the worst in the country or one of the worst in the country — only got worse.

The momentum for reform after the release of the Hopkins report has been delayed or destroyed by the time it took transfer the school system to the state, lengthy and poor hiring by Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green, endless battles with the intransigent Providence Teachers Union, and failure by governors and state leaders.

Business leaders have been too afraid or disinterested to participate in any meaningful changes -- one group of CEOs provided some minimal funding for consultants.

There is enough failure to go around.  Everyone needs to be embarrassed.

We need no more ten-year plans.

Providence schools need to be literally named a disaster zone by the emergency powers of the governor.

Immediately, Victor Capellan, union leader Steve Smith or the Commissioner herself should immediately take over the school department for the state.

The union needs to get on board with a contract agreement within 30 days and if not, then the provision within Crowley law should be triggered and the existing contract structure should be voided.

Pontificating legislators who defend the perverse norm should keep their mouths shut or immediately move their child or grandchild to the worst-performing schools in the worst-performing district — not cherry-pick the East Side schools and Classical — a de facto academy with an entrance exam.

The continuation of the poor quality of the Providence Schools is immoral, and, of course, the continuation of their inferior performance is overtly race and class-driven.

Overwhelmingly white families and middle-class families of color have bolted from this train wreck to ensure that their kids were not sacrificed — they left for Catholic, prep, charters, and the suburbs and they never looked back.

Providence Schools are a disaster. If the governor and the commissioner can’t make meaningful and immediate changes then let's hire new ones.

Let’s end this 40-year failure, this state embarrassment, and the waste of billions of dollars.

No more pathetic excuses.