Students Win: Follow up on the Central Falls High School story

Earlier this spring the Central Falls High School situation dominated local news as the CF School Board sought to implement  the RI Protocol for Intervention, part of the requirements under the federal No Child Left Behind guidelines. The initial impact was the firing of all the teachers in the high school.

Now months later, the heat has gone out the issue. It is off the front pages and out of the local and national media. There has been progress. The teachers, all of who had been fired, will be rehired if they desire this fall. The union has accepted the conditions initially proposed by the Superintendent and School Board.

        In a recent article, Making Decisions Together: The Rebirth of Central Falls High School,,  appearing in EdWeek , Dr. Deborah A. Gist outlines the current situation and the conditions that have been agreed upon by the union and the school district. It is fair to say today that the STUDENTS are going to be the winners. Those of you who have been following this debate,  I strongly  recommend the article.

         Students are winners again as a result of the State coming up with a new funding formula for local schools which places the student ahead of the bureaucracy. State money will follow the students.

         The Rhode Island General Assembly, which is frequently the target of my criticism, deserves credit for their recent passage of a new state funding formula for the state schools districts and charter schools. According to the Providence Journal.

"The new formula links state aid to the current number of students enrolled and adds money for low-income students, many of whom have additional educational needs that the additional aid is intended to address."

         Now if only the GA would recognize that these students will need a place to go after graduation. Technical training for jobs and a more effectively and efficiently funding the State's higher education institutions might help provide them with the options they and we taxpayers deserve.

         From the economic development and employment perspective, this would generate the trained and educated labor force which  will attract industry to the state. And from tax payer perspective it might help to retain the intellectual capital and investment we are making in our schools. More jobs means more opportunity for student. More jobs mean more tax paying citizens. More tax paying citizens should means a lower burdens for everyone while increasing the State's ability to solve its fiscal crisis.

Central Falls High School Crisis --The Revolution and Counter-revolution continues

Earlier in February, we asked our viewers to comment on the pending confrontation between the Central Falls School Administration and the local AFT Union. Today's Providence Journal describes the latest in the battle for the hearts, minds, and soul of Central Falls and its parents, teachers, unions, school administration, and most of all, the students.

To read the comments to this article is to get peek into the soup that is public opinion. There are the emotional and, at times irrational, members of the public who place their ideological biases over their own best interests and the interests of the community. And then there are those who see the problem and want to help, to enlighten and to solve it by offering analysis and information.

The Central Falls case is not a simple labor management issue. It is far bigger than that. It impacts the rights of parents and students to expect and get a decent education and preparation for the future. After all isn't that what education is for?

It is about the self identity that the teachers have for themselves. These highly trained and well paid, professionals have not been behaving like the professionals they claim to be. Instead they are are behaving like union day laborers who approach their work as if it were an hourly wage job. If they wanted to be day labors, become substitutes, if they want to be treated as professional learn what the word means.

It is is about a bankrupt State that can no longer afford to feed off of federal handouts, excessive state and local taxes, and one shot stop gaps and windfalls. IT IS ABOUT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT for all.

AND it is about survival. It is about the survival of students in a rapidly changing and unforgiving world. It is about the survival of a community high school and its traditions which once helped hundreds of immigrant families to work their way into the American middle class. It is about the survival of a public education system in this state which can prepare the next generation of working+consuming+ taxpaying citizens.

We are in the middle of a revolution and the world is watching. The Central Falls situation has made statewide news. It has made the regional news. It has made the national news and even drawn the attention of the US Secretary of Education and the President of the United States. It has even reached to the other side of the world in New Zeeland. Just about as far as you can go before you start back.

Be aware Rhode Island, this is another Gaspee burning. We are witnessing a revolutionary moment. Where do you stand?