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Our state has set an ambitious goal: to become one of the top-performing education systems in the nation by 2030. But our 15-year-old school funding formula wasn't designed to get us there, and every year we delay reform, we leave more students behind.

As co-chairs of a Blue Ribbon Commission on education funding, we've spent the past year examining Rhode Island's system from every angle. We brought together stakeholders who are sometimes at odds – teachers and superintendents, charter and district school leaders, municipal officials and community advocates – and asked them to build consensus around a modernized funding system that puts the focus on kids in the classroom and on real fiscal accountability to ensure student success. And they did. It was a team effort, and we are grateful to them for putting in the time, raising hard questions, and engaging across differences.

The Commission’s recommendations draw on lessons learned from across the country – California’s accountability framework, Connecticut's local share requirements, Michigan's support for multilingual learners, among others. We’ve studied what’s working nationwide and tailored it for Rhode Island.

Rhode Island’s current funding formula falls short of giving students the support they deserve. It fails to cover basic costs like getting students to school and maintaining safe buildings. That forces districts to make impossible choices between fixing leaky roofs and hiring reading specialists. It fails to acknowledge that different students have different needs—and generate different costs. It leaves districts scrambling to cover unexpected costs, taking time away from what matters most: teaching and learning. And, critically, it offers no mechanism to ensure that dollars translate into better performance.

The approach the Commission proposes fixes these problems by creating a student-centered system, with a weighted student formula sending more state dollars to school districts to match the educational needs of economically disadvantaged students, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities. It would properly support high-cost career and technical education programs. And, the state would assume responsibility for unpredictable expenses – like extraordinarily high-cost special education services – that currently force districts into crisis budgeting mode.

Accountability sits at the heart of our recommendations, because increasing the state’s education budget alone won't improve student outcomes. The Commission proposes a new Fiscal Responsibility Board to ensure transparency in how districts spend taxpayer dollars and whether that spending improves student learning.

Districts would be required to publicly report not just their budgets, but their progress toward closing achievement gaps. And consistent use of the State’s Uniform Chart of Accounts would show Rhode Islanders–from the State House and town halls to the classroom–exactly where education dollars go.

For districts struggling to meet goals, we recommend a tiered support system. Technical assistance comes first. Then, for communities that persistently struggle, intensive state intervention would be provided as a form of support. The goal isn't punishment, but partnership focused on student success.

This proposal restructures how we share educational costs between state and municipal governments. It makes current expenses transparent rather than hidden.

By requiring municipalities to fund education based on their property wealth, we ensure everyone pays their fair share. We can confidently ask this of cities and towns because the proposed system includes robust accountability measures that create both financial transparency and improved outcomes - addressing taxpayers' legitimate concerns about funding school systems they don't trust to use dollars effectively. And by relying more on tax structures at the state level, we open the opportunity for local property tax relief while also removing some of the budget volatility that undermines local planning.

Education isn't just a moral imperative - it's an economic necessity. A well-educated workforce drives prosperity. Every day we operate under the current funding system, we're not spending tax dollars efficiently – and we're limiting our children's potential.

The Commission’s recommendations represent genuine consensus across traditional divides. With the help of the team at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, we've done the research, examined the evidence from across the country, and built a roadmap.

All of Rhode Island’s public-school students, and educators, stand to benefit from this new system.

Now is the time to adopt this comprehensive, effective, and efficient funding system. Our children are watching, and our economic future depends on the choices we make.

Rhode Island Foundation President and CEO David N. Cicilline and Dr. Nora E. Gordon, Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, co-chair the Blue Ribbon Commission.

To learn more about the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission, click the button below:

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