Who is Going to Pay — 7 Things You Need to Know About Providence Schools’ Budget

Flexibility is Possible

The Ernst and Young (EY) study released Friday finds that there may be a lot more flexibility in the Providence School system budget that previously argued.

According to one finding, “Additional analysis suggests that there is a pool of ~$19m in areas such as academics, student supports and data/IT where the District could look to devolve a portion of these funds to schools to increase flexibility in decision-making.”

Demonstrated Growth of Charter Schools

Charter schools are just a tiny fraction of the budget, but is where the enrollment is taking place. 

Overall, district enrollment has been virtually flat over the past four years, but charter schools have grown by 50 percent.

Providence Is Not Off the Hook Due to the Takeover

Providence taxpayers are not off the hook. The study reminds Providence decision-makers while city aid has been relatively flat historically, the Crowley Act enables the District to receive more revenue. 

“If a school or school district is under the board of regents’ control as a result of actions taken by the board…the local school committee shall be responsible for funding that school or school district at the same level in the prior academic year increased by the same percentage as the state total of school district aid is increased," according to the Crowley Act.

Providence Transportation Costs Per Pupil Are 3X Cranston’s

In Cranston, the average per-pupil cost for bus transportation is $244, but in Providence, the cost is $711.

It is one area that questions Providence's fiscal management.

Providence was dealt with a seventeen-day school bus strike in 2018.

Employee Benefits Are More Expensive in Providence than Any Other Community

The cost of benefits to school department employees is nearly 50 percent (49%) of salary expenditures -- and is 32 percent higher than Cranston.

Vacancies in Critical Positions Adversely Impact the Most Needy Students

According to EY:

Vacancies in positions that serve special populations exist at double the rate of general education positions and exacerbate the staffing challenge

Vacancies in content-certified EL teachers tend to be higher than the average for all EL teachers, at approximately 25%

Vacancies in the autism strand are more acute than the vacancy rate for special education overall: over one-third of autism teacher positions are vacant or on leave.

Conditions of Providence Schools Are Deplorable

The EY study is the third study in the past three years to identify that the physical condition of Providence Schools will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to repair and upgrade.

The EY study finds that a significant portion of the problem is that the City of Providence simply failed to make the proper investments annually.