LaFortune Wants to End State Control of Providence Schools - Responds to Sasse’s Letter
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
On Monday, Providence City Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Nirva LaFortune responded to former Rhode Island Director of Administration -- and Founder of Hassenfeld Institute at Bryant University -- Gary Sasse’s open letter calling for an “Education Mayor” for Providence.
In her statement, LaFortune said she wants to wrestle control of the city's school system back from the state.
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LaFortune's Statement
"Providence, I am running to be the education Mayor that we need. I am a single, working mother of two children who have now spent years in the Providence Public School system. My son Messiah is a recent graduate of Classical High School, and my daughter Nyree-Simone currently attends Nathan Bishop middle school. I, myself, am also a graduate of the district. PPSD is a central part of my family’s story. This city and district helped raise us, and I have a plan to return control of our schools back to our community.
Mr. Sasse’s diagnosis of the challenges that the State of Rhode Island has faced since announcing the takeover is spot on. It was a 'poorly designed,' poorly implemented plan, and it has not had the positive impact on our children that we were promised.
As a candidate for Mayor, I can make you one promise: you can trust me to make our schools better and work towards guaranteeing that every child has access to a high-quality education. We need to make progress on working with the State to create a comprehensive education plan to bring control of our schools back to the City of Providence. We need a clear vision of how we can work collaboratively with everyone - from City, State and Federal governments to the nonprofit and higher-education sectors - to make our schools better. We have to create conditions in Providence that will allow all students to flourish. The future of my child, the future of your children, and the future of our City depend on electing a Mayor who has the experience, as a leader and parent, and the wholehearted motivations to do right by our children.
Over the course of many years, I have worked alongside students, parents, educators, and local stakeholders to reform our schools. I was on the State Commission of Practitioners to implement President Barack Obama's Every Student Succeeds Act and was part of a team to develop two new Opportunity by Design Schools. Even as a graduate student in the Urban Education Policy Program at Brown University, I worked with the Providence Student Union and PPSD to research and outline strategies to implement Ethnic Studies and advocated to change language in the State’s Constitution to guarantee all students have the right to an adequate education.
I have helped bring communities together with educational legal experts, and that led to a lawsuit for Civics Education; passed legislation for social-emotional support and services in our schools, and worked on the Fix Our Schools campaign to end the moratorium on school construction repayments in Rhode Island and invest in school repairs.
There is much more work to be done, and I am ready to work, as Mayor, to ensure that every child in our City has access to a high-quality education.
I support Mr. Sasse’s plan to smoothly transition to a public board of oversight until the conclusion of the 2026-2027 school year. As Mayor, I will work to guarantee that we, the City of Providence, have control of our schools by the end of my first term. Until then, the oversight board must be chosen with input from the public and the majority, if not all, need to be residents of Providence and work collaboratively with the School Board. This transition period gives us the time to thoughtfully collect and use public input from students, parents and educators alike, and hear from them about their desires for this next phase of our beloved Providence Public Schools. In addition to public engagement and input, this will allow time to make critical investments in our school district.
Many had hoped, like myself, for the possibility of finally working with the State to create a path forward to truly transform our schools. However, since the Crowley Act was enacted more than two years ago, PPSD has been plagued by controversy, poor leadership and judgment, and a lack of transparency. We have to take ownership of this situation. If you want a government that works for you, for our schools to get back on track, and to begin prioritizing our children’s education over politics, there’s one choice in this race.
The time to take action is now. We need accountability. We need competent leaders. We need a Mayor who will step up and act with bold leadership and relentless integrity.
We need a Statewide educational plan that sets benchmarks for every district and outlines the resources, tools and interventions that will be provided to ensure each district has the ability to rise up.
We need to also recognize and build on the strengths we have, like the national model for afterschool programming that exists with the Providence After School Alliance, and the past success of Full Service Community Schools. Like too many programs over the years, Full Service didn't receive the support it needed and, therefore, ended too soon. It's time we change that.
Providence is home to some of the country’s best universities. It is time that we have leadership in City Hall who will leverage and improve the relationships between the City and its flagship universities to improve mentorship and college advising, develop job training programs for our children and young adults, and more.
We can develop and test new models without pushing aside experienced teachers and principals, and we can create safe and thriving environments without sacrificing our students' mental and behavioral well-being and without diminishing arts education in our schools.
Providence is long overdue for a comprehensive, thoughtful, and inclusive plan that ensures and guarantees a high-quality education to every single child in Providence.
Let’s make it happen – together."
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