The Providence school district and its community have repeatedly told Mayor Smiley about its severe budget shortfall and lack of funding. As a result, a mass firing of teachers is planned in an already struggling district. Frustrated, the superintendent took to social media, posting a video highlighting these concerns and alerting the public to the situation. Smiley didn’t take kindly to this, essentially telling the superintendent to keep quiet, all the while attending the graduations of some of the very public schools he’s intentionally failing.
According to WPRI, Smiley stated, “A YouTube video released at 10 at night is not how adults should negotiate over funding.” The background, however, is that Smiley has refused to listen to the pleas of educators behind closed doors, and only when the public was alerted of his wrongdoing does he get angry and play this card. After all, a prime motivation for Smiley’s snap comment is that he likely wants things kept quiet, to keep in the good graces of the public school communities and its supporters or risk ongoing public discontent and future loss of votes.
Additionally, with a more keen public, city officials and its council have become pressured to alter the proposed prized budget that Smiley is so egotistically proud of. Indeed, following the superintendent’s video, the next city council meeting was filled with folks advocating that the budget allocate more funds to schools.
Still, he dug deeper. As the district hangs by a thread, he went on to further rail against public schools, exclaiming, “They have to manage their budget just like I have to manage my budget.” Notably, Smiley has no qualms with tossing more than 110 million at the already overinflated police budget without question, nor does he hesitate to shell out the many millions dismantling critical public safety infrastructure and criminalizing homelessness.
What Mayor Smiley wants is clear: officials should not let the public know about his misuse of public funds. In parallel and equally important, with the slow demolition of public schools, he plans to shepherd in more charters. Ultimately, if his proposed budget goes through, it will be a disaster for our schools. However, we can at least thank the superintendent for educating the public on the issue and mobilizing them to create positive change through our legislative process.