NEW: Ed Reformer Butke Leaving RI-CAN to Run for State Senate

NEW: Ed Reformer Butke Leaving RI-CAN to Run for State Senate

Maryellen Butke is stepping down from post as executive director of the Rhode Island Campaign for Achievement Now (RI-CAN), the State Senate candidate announced in an e-mail today.

Butke is running a three-way Democratic primary for the District 3 seat being vacated by Rhoda Parry. Gayle Goldin is the endorsed candidate in the race and Jessica Holden Sherwood is also running.

RI-CAN is part of a nationwide organization that advocates for education reform.

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In her e-mail, Butke touted RI-CAN’s role in bringing the Achievement First charter management organization to the state and highlighted the organization’s role in starting “important conversations about reforming school staffing policies, removing obstacles for implementing proven strategies in all of our public schools and funding for charter school buildings so they can be on equal footing with the rest of the system.”

“I have decided to step down from RI-CAN so that I can devote my full energies to running for Senate District 3 in Providence,” she wrote. “This isn’t the end of my journey as an advocate for kids but just another chapter in a story that began when I was pulled into this work to advocate for my own children.”