ON QUALITY EDUCATION
Dear Neighbors,
Every Providence student deserves a high-quality education that prepares them to succeed. As a product of our public schools, I know the lessons and skills I was exposed to growing up, here in these schools, were critical in fulfilling some of my greatest dreams. It is because of this personal experience that I am deeply passionate about continuously improving our educational system.
All members of the Providence Public Schools community, from educators to students and parents, must be part of the process to create meaningful and positive change in the way that we educate. As you may be aware, my Administration has been engaged in contract negotiations with the Providence Teachers Union (PTU) and I am writing this letter to share my thoughts with you.
I am committed to securing an agreement that supports all stakeholders, including teachers, our students and families. The PTU and the City have met multiple times, and the City has put wage and benefit offers on the table in good faith. However, there are two main challenges that we face. First, our school system has unfortunately not prepared our students for the challenges of the 21st century. Many of our students who graduate from our high schools still have to take remedial classes at community college. I want to be clear that I do not blame teachers for this. We have amazingly committed professionals who have dedicated their lives to educating our children. I want to support them and let them know that they are valued, but doing the same thing as we???ve always done is not going to lead to different results for our kids.
While I cannot reveal the details of our negotiations, the City???s offers move us in the direction of getting transformational results for our students. I believe in maximizing students??? time on task, I believe in surrounding children with the social and emotional supports they need to thrive, I believe in professional development for teachers and I believe in personalizing instruction for our kids. These kinds of investments will have the transformational impact that we need, and I am open to partnering with the PTU to find the right balance of investments in each of these areas.
Over the course of the last four years, my administration has made investing in our kids our number one priority. Despite federal funding cuts and increasing costs, we have made significant additional investments in programs that directly benefit them.
- As part of the Fiscal Year 18 budget, we increased our funding contribution to schools by $3.6 million. The increase was the first in seven years and allowed us to leverage dollars to enhance instruction.
- We hired school culture coordinators for each of our seven middle schools.
- With a focus on personalized learning, we have purchased thousands of computers and tablets, so that now, every child has access to their own digital device at every school.??
- We want our children to learn in safe, warm and dry schools, and that is why since 2015, we have invested $38 million to fix our schools. We also made a commitment to investing up to $400 million in the next 10 years because we understand how severe the issue is, and we???re starting that process by asking you, the community, to vote ???yes??? on a $160 million bond that will go directly to our school facilities.
- We know that students only spend 20 percent of their waking hours inside a school, and a quality education is also defined by the work we do to complement that small window of time. For the other 80 percent of the time, we have to think outside of the box, which is why we have dramatically increased opportunities for children outside of school.
- With the exorbitant cost of childcare, we provided high-quality programming at a cost of only $5/week for thousands of kids throughout the summer.
- To help combat summer learning loss, 1,100 youth had access to free summer learning opportunities through the city.
- To prepare our youth for the future, over 1,300 young people have enrolled in paid summer and year-round employment as well as advanced internships through our programs.
- To expand the range of opportunities our kids have access to, we launched the PVD Young Makers program in partnership with our libraries so that kids could have yet another avenue to pursue their passions.
- Our responsibility to our kids begins before they enter school and extends to after they graduate. We have supported Providence Talks so that kids are ready for kindergarten. We have also provided college scholarships for graduates.
These investments have created a cradle-to-career system of support for our kids so that they have access to safe, supportive programs that enrich their experiences growing up in our city. It is our goal to continue and expand as many of these programs as possible. We are all in for our kids here in Providence and have big plans for their future.
However, the City???s fiscal situation means that we have very difficult decisions to make. As it stands, our School Department is facing a $37-million deficit over the next five years due to federal funding cuts, loss of other funding streams, increased costs district-wide and the growing needs for specialized support within the District. The cuts will be painful and they run the risk of forcing the elimination of many of the existing programs that support our students and teachers in the schools. While I in no way believe we will solve this problem by denying teachers increased wages and fair benefits, any contract we negotiate will cost the City an additional $10 to $17 million over the coming three years. No one blames teachers for this; it is simply part of the reality that we face. A long time ago, the City gave away more than it can afford. Unfortunately, the bill is now coming due and it is forcing us to make very difficult decisions.
With clear obstacles before us, we must have hard conversations about how we will improve educational outcomes within our financial means. Our students are talented and driven and we will continue to work diligently to support their skills and talents by matching their needs. Just as it did for many of you, my public school education opened doors for me, and I want to make sure that it does so for all of our students for generations to come.??
Mayor Jorge Elorza