Rhode Island lawmakers and its Department of Education want to lockup students for missing school

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As predicted, Governor McKee’s sole focus on attendance is being used as a belt to punish inner-city students and low-key push charters. Often drawing unfair comparisons to more well-off schools, including these charters, he’s obscured the situation, turning people, specifically lawmakers, against publicly funded inner-city schools. This has led to a bill being introduced that would punish students who have continually missed school. Notably, this is seemingly supported by the Department of Education according to comments from their spokesperson.

Throughout the last few years, there’s been little to no mention of fixing the actual cause of the problem, such as giving public schools more funding and resources, as well as addressing the systemic issues which cause inner-city students to be more prone to missing classes. Instead of any public school focus, there’s been a drive to push charters and reward them, with just recently, some having a chance at getting free rent in the future. Because of all this, are we now starting to see Rhode Island find excuses to push out troubled inner-city schools to make way for a charter-based school system?

It should go without saying, though, that if this bill were to pass, the implications would be catastrophic. Not only do we slip down further into the charter lane, but the act of punishing students who need help the most would lead to distrust and alienation, and cause the issue to balloon further. In fact, juvenile detention, like jail, has been demonstrated to be ineffective at best. Even practically speaking, if a student were to be detained, what would happen if they or their family were found to be illegal? What about the associated fees they might incur? And don’t we have an overflowing prison system already?

This bill is being pushed by Representative Joseph McNamara and several others. As of right now, it’s unclear where it’ll go, although, with the backing of the Department of Education, it could gain traction. Nonetheless, this is an embarrassment. We know what the issues are, and we absolutely know how to fix them, but instead of doing so, we immediately turn to “solutions” that will pose even greater complications. Our kids, teachers, and public schools deserve so much better than this, and judging by these constant outlandish situations and outright ignorance, it’s apparent their voices aren’t being listened to in these conversations.


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