CCRI Faculty Association: 18 Who Made a Difference in 2018

Friday, December 28, 2018

 

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Rhode Island’s community college is the center of one of the biggest education battles not only in the state, but in the country.  

Following the implementation of Governor Gina Raimondo’s free college “Rhode Island Promise” program last fall, the Community College of Rhode Island’s Faculty Association questioned the data being released by the administration as to both students’ compliance with the program — and its efficacy — it what will no doubt be a showdown in the coming years at the Rhode Island General Assembly, as Raimondo “promised” during the 2018 election season to expand the program to URI and RIC.
"From what we have in this 'Enrollment Update' -- 38% of the RI Promise students failed to return for year two -- and of those that did return, we haven’t yet been told how many of the returnees failed to complete the first year successfully," said CCRIFA head Steve Murray in October. “I wouldn’t call RI Promise a success or a good use of the taxpayers money."

"I can’t imagine that of the 62% that returned that they all completed 30 credits with a 2.5 GPA. When the College finally chooses to release these numbers, I believe we will see that many RI Promise students did not successfully complete their first year," said Murray.
A subsequent review of documents unveiled by GoLocal shows that claims by CCRI and Raimondo relating to the success of the free-tuition RI Promise program are not supported by school documents.  As GoLocal reported:

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According to the documents obtained last spring, 720 "RI Promise, non-Pell Grant" students entered the program in 2017, with 208 on track to meet the standards for an award in year two.

CCRI, however, counted all 1,577 first-time, full-time students entering in 2017 as part of its "Promise" cohort -- whether they received free-tuition through the Promise program or not. 
Free college for students in need to provide a better-educated workforce in Rhode Island might, in essence, be a laudable goal, but both the use of taxpayers’ dollars — and a real “truth in numbers” analysis is needed. 
 

 

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