With 16,000 on Waiting List, Prov. Council President Flips, Moves to Block Charter School Lease

With 16,000 on Waiting List, Prov. Council President Flips, Moves to Block Charter School Lease

There are more than 16,000 families on the waiting list to gain access to charter schools in Rhode Island. Providence schools were ranked by Johns Hopkins University as being among the worst in the United States.

Since then, test scores have fallen even lower.

While families wait, Providence City Council President Rachel Miller is trying to make them wait even longer. The agreement for a lease for a charter school to use a vacant school building that Miller helped to craft - she is now opposing it. 

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On Wednesday night, she issued a press release announcing she now opposed the heavily negotiated lease with Excel Academy for the former Carl G. Lauro building.

Presently, the building is vacant. Under the lease agreement, Excel would have paid the City $200,000 per year for use of the building, and the city would have saved $300,000 it currently pays to maintain the vacant school. The City would have netted $500,000 a year. Providence residents this year are seeing a near-record increase in taxes.

 

Flip-Flop

Miller said in announcing her opposition to the lease deal, “After careful consideration, I’ve determined that such an arrangement would not be in the best interest of the neighborhood or city. The city council will not hand the keys of a shuttered public school building to a charter school.”

Multiple people with direct knowledge tell GoLocal that Miller helped to negotiate the very deal that she now opposes.

GoLocal asked Miller on Wednesday night, after she flipped her position, why the change of position, with thousands on charter school waiting lists? And why is she not making an effort to secure slots at Charter schools for those Providence families?

Miller did not respond.

While Miller opposes the deal, former Providence School Board Chair Keith Oliveira strongly endorses the lease.

 

Strong Support for Equity

“So tomorrow, the Providence City Council is scheduled to vote on a lease agreement of the Carl G. Lauro building (it was Kenyon St. School when I went there) to Excel Academy public charter school. They should approve the lease. On its merits, the lease agreement makes sense and serves a number of purposes. PPSD benefits because it provides swing space for the school district," said Oliveira. 

“The city benefits from the rental income it will generate. The local neighborhood benefits by putting to use a vacant and decaying eyesore. Most importantly, Providence families benefit from the opportunity that Excel Academy will provide and what Black and brown Providence families desperately seek - another high-quality, public-school option. The lease makes sense. Those who are opposed recite the same old, tired arguments against charter schools that I have heard for 30 years. They are ideological arguments, derived from entrenched political interests intent on maintaining the status quo, versus the practical reality of Black and brown families just trying to find a way out for their kids," he added, 

The bottom line is this - either you're for opportunity or a barrier to opportunity. The Providence City Council owes it to the families of Providence to not be a barrier to opportunity,” added Oliveira, who has served as Executive Director of TIMES 2 Academy since May 2023.