Question of the Week: What difference does it make if elected officials send their own kids to the traditional public schools in their home community? That’s my top item this week, so read on. Thanks for stopping by for my weekly column. As usual, your tips and comments are welcome, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
1) Would you believe that the biggest city in the smallest state has only eight elected officials with school-age children? That was a revelation to me. More telling is how fewer than half of these 13 kids go to traditional public schools in Providence. That may not be surprising – RI Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green said shortly after arriving earlier this year that she wouldn’t send her own kids to school in Providence (they go to separate private schools in East Providence). And many of us know people who have left the capital city for the suburbs due to concerns about Providence schools. “Every parent should make the decision that they think is best for their kid and not apologize for it,” Gov. Gina Raimondo said, “but public schools should be a good option.” There was a time when city schools were a good option. Back in the 1960s, Life magazine portrayed Hope High School as a model college prepartory school. But there was a different economy then, and kids with less academic aptitude or interest could drop out and make a good income with a manufacturing job. So as Infante-Green leads the new effort to improve Providence schools, Rhode Islanders can continue to debate how things would be different if more of the city’s elected officials sent their kids to traditional Providence schools.
2) Here’s some of the reaction sparked by my story. Sam Howard says the issue is mostly one of class: “The problem is never going to be where each politician send her or his kids. What matters is that many parents, parents with means, are actively choosing to not put their kids in the public school system. Politicians who do this aren’t displaying hypocrisy so much as displaying the values of the class of people they themselves are from.” …. The RI GOP Chairwoman Sue Cienki frames the issue differently: “It is utter hypocrisy for any elected official to take advantage of school choice while limiting the ability of their own constituents to do the same. While politicians and public officials talk about changing the Providence school system, thousands of children remain trapped in one of the worst school systems in the country. It is time to give all parents, not just elected officials, the ability to send their children to a school of their choice.” …. Education observer Erika Sanzi detects a double-standard: “If our elected officials would not send their own children to a school, then they have no right to ask or expect any other parent to do so. And they don’t even ask—they compel. If you are poor, they push policies and spout talking points that trap you in schools based on your zip code, regardless of whether or not it is a quality school, a good fit for your child or can even teach your son or daughter to read.”
3) RI Senate Finance Chairman William Conley (D-East Providence) raised the big top Thursday on the highlight of the legislative off-season – the proposed 20-year extension for IGT to provide most of the state’s gambling services and the intensifying battle between that company and Twin River. Conley vowed a detailed, transparent and in-depth look at the key questions in the debate. And lawmakers, perhaps chastened by experiences with UHIP and the ghost of 38 Studios, put a bunch of appropriately tough questions to officials from Gov. Gina Raimondo’s administration. Raimondo is set to testify before House Finance on Tuesday afternoon.
4) With more Sunrise action in Providence this week, check out Emily Atkin’s New Republic story imagining how the climate will be different by 2100. Excerpt: “It’s been an excruciatingly slow-motion disaster, engineered by shortsighted, power-obsessed leaders hell-bent on denying scientific truths—and blocking the basic measures to mitigate carbon emissions and stave off drought, rising ocean tides, and mass migrations of climate-traumatized populations to higher ground in increasingly xenophobic and belligerent rich Western nations.” Related: Your humble correspondent will be moderating a discussion next Thursday, September 26, at URI’s Providence campus, about climate change.
5) A debate played out on Twitter earlier this week when I broke the news that progressive activist Kendra Anderson has filed papers to run for the seat held by Senate Judiciary Chairwoman Erin Lynch Prata (D-Warwick). Lynch Prata played a high-profile role in shepherding Rhode Island’s new abortion law to the Senate floor; Sen. Donna Nesselbush (D-Pawtucket) dubbed her the “Archambault whisperer” for bringing along initially balky Sen. Stephen Archambault (D-Smithfield). So some Democrats were aghast at the idea of an internecine battle drawing resources and energy from other primary races. “Erin Lynch Prata is a fantastic legislator and friend to progressives,” tweeted Wendy Becker. “I hope @ardnek627 will reconsider running against a leader in the senate that cares—and delivered on—key social justice issues. We should all be helping her, not running against her.” Other Democrats said that competition is good for everyone. “I have worked with @ardnek627 for years in @ClimateActionRI and I’m excited for the release of her platform and plans,” tweeted Woonsocket City Councilor Alex Kithes. But this debate may be academic. When I reached out to Anderson with some questions, she offered this response via email: “I actually haven’t announced that I’m running. I filed papers leaving the door open.”
5A) Not hedging on a legislative primary run is Nicholas Delmenico, who is taking another shot against Rep. Patricia Serpa (D-West Warwick) after a previous campaign in 2016. Via statement: “Rep. Serpa and Speaker Mattiello participated in 844 floor votes together in 2017, and she voted the same as Mattiello 844 times. Our community needs a representative that is transparent and forward thinking, that cares for their neighborhoods and their constituents, and that welcomes ethics reform and opposing views rather than seeing them as an attack. District 27 deserves better than this. We need someone who works to represent us. I promise to be that person and I promise to never forget that I work for you.”
6) Former Providence mayor Joe Paolino, whose current roles include serving as RI’s national Democratic committeeman, thinks congressional Democrats are wasting their time by contemplating an impeachment inquiry against President Trump. “Why can’t we spend all that time and effort and go into an infrastructure bill?” Paolino asked on Bonus Q&A this week, “And build a rail system where we could have high-speed rail? Instead they’re talking about impeachment – that’s never going to happen because the U.S. Senate is not going to convict President Trump, and you have an election coming up. I don’t know why they just want to stay on this – maybe to help certain congressional people or senators in their own district, ‘see how progressive I am?’ Asked if he was referring to people like U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, an impeachment supporter who squared off this week with Trump loyalist Corey Lewandowski), Paolino said, “He’s impressed me in the Congress. He’s been bold, he’s been smart …. But I wish he would spend a little bit more time trying to put together a good infrastructure bill for this country. Why do we have the best rail system that was built for a mouse and a duck in Orlando, Florida, and we don’t have one here in the Northeast corridor?”
7) Former state Rep. Bobby Nardolillo (R-Coventry), who gave up his seat to run against U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in 2018 (and then ended that bid in deference to fellow Republican Robert Flanders), is considering vying again for a seat in the General Assembly. “It’s still a little early,” Nardolillo tells me, but he says he misses the advocacy of being a part of the legislature. While the Coventry Republican says he’s undecided, he’s mulling both the House and Senate – a situation that could create a GOP primary for seats held by Republicans Rep. George Nardone and Sen. Gordon Rogers.
8) War is the continuation of politics by other means, as the saying goes. So watch for fallout from the chill in the relationship between Gov. Gina Raimondo, who got fewer of her priorities funded in the most recent state budget, and House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello. A case in point is how the RI Commerce Corporation, in its words, “has taken action to place stricter controls over a new investment fund tax credit program approved by the legislature. “This program, which creates a very generous tax incentive for out-of-state investors, has had mixed resulted in other states,” Raimondo said in a statement. “Rhode Islanders deserve to have confidence that taxpayer money is being spent responsibly with transparent processes and professional evaluation.” Via Commerce: “The program authorizes state tax credits worth 64.5% for niche investment funds and their investors, meaning that taxpayers will pay investment firms two-thirds of every dollar invested.” (Mattiello spokesman Larry Berman offered this response: “The governor is off base in her criticism of the Small Business Development Fund. The General Assembly included it in the budget because the administration’s economic development policies of the last four years have not done enough to help home-grown small businesses. This program is designed to fill in the gaps where the Commerce programs have not been adequate or accessible for these types of businesses. As enacted, the program requires Commerce to establish rules and regulations and exercise oversight to ensure its success, and we expect that. It would be unfortunate if these criticisms were intended to distract from the performance and shortcomings of the existing Commerce programs.”)
9) Not a big surprise, but Joe Kennedy is set to run for the brass ring of the U.S. Senate seat held by longtime Massachusetts Democrat Ed Markey, a move that will create an opening in a U.S. House seat that stretches from Newton and Brookline to Fall River and the Attleboros. As WBUR’s Kimberly Atkins reports, “Kennedy’s challenge to Markey forces Democrats in Massachusetts and beyond to pick sides between two well-liked and respected party members. The potential of the primary battle has stirred concern among some Democrats who fear the move will steer much-needed energy away from efforts to beat President Trump and House and Senate Republicans in 2020.”
10) Speaking of elections, Jasiel Correia, the twice-arrested mayor of Fall River, placed a distant second in a preliminary election this week — yet he still survived to compete in November. My colleague Nadine Sebai looked in why a number of voters in the Spindle City still support a guy facing a superseding federal indictment. From her report: “Frank Farley, former president of the American Psychological Association, said it comes down to the supporter seeing themselves in the politicians they vote for. ‘Criticism of that candidate for some voters will be seen as criticism of their own judgment,’ Farley said. ‘We don’t like to feel that we are wrong or misinformed on a particular vote. You know no one likes buyer’s remorse.’ Voters want to remain consistent in the decisions they’ve made. It’s called confirmation bias. In a study from 2000, researchers found Democrats who voted for Bill Clinton were much less likely to say the president should be punished for lying under oath than Republicans. The study concluded that humans tend to embrace a position that restores or maintains their self-esteem.”
11) Political short-takes: The president of the Central Falls City Council, Maria Rivera, this week announced her campaign to become the first female mayor of that community …. Candace Owens is doing an event hosted by RI Young Republicans on Saturday, September 21 (4:30 pm) at the RI Convention Center. According to a release, Owens “is the founder of the BLEXIT foundation, an organization dedicated to driving conservative principles into urban communities.” …. The Working Families Party, which has made its presence felt in legislative races in RI, this week endorsed Elizabeth Warren.
12) While more than a few Democrats are fretting about the party’s outlook in challenging President Trump next year, Democratic National Committeeman Joe Paolino is more sanguine. “Some people think Trump is going to win no matter who we put up against him,” Paolino told The Public’s Radio this week. “I don’t know who he’s added. I mean, politics is a game of addition. He’s really got a lot of people upset, except for his base and they love him, but after that I don’t see that following.” Paolino yearn for the kind of moderate candidate who would help Democrats to win more western and Midwestern states – no small task when as traditionally blue a place as Johnston had a huge swing toward Trump in 2016. But Paolino believes they risk elevating a progressive at their own peril: “Maybe some people that are more progressive than me will think that I’m old fashioned. ine. That’s their opinion, but I’m seeing a lack of common sense in some things that we do today in politics.”
12A) Meanwhile, via an email from President Trump’s press operation: “2020 Democrats have embraced the radical Green New Deal and openly called for the elimination of all fossil fuels, including coal and natural gas. This would devastate workers in Rhode Island where the fossil fuel industry supports more than 15,000 jobs. Democrats’ message to American workers is clear: If you like your American energy job, too bad—you can’t keep it. Not to mention the negative effects this would have on other industries such as manufacturing, which is of course intertwined with the energy industry. While the Democrats’ plan would kill countless jobs across the country, President Trump continues to champion American energy.”
12B) Scott MacKay’s take on the early state of the presidential race.
13) URI economics professor Len Lardaro’s Current Condition Index recorded an 83 for July – its highest mark of the year and the best since an 83 last November. From the professor’s commentary: “The upbeat note of Rhode Island’s end-of-second-quarter performance continued in July. While it is too early to label this as a trend, it is at least safe to say that our positives are once again gaining on our economic negatives. That comes as truly welcome news given a very unsatisfactory performance in the first quarter, which featured our #46 national ranking for economic growth. The Current Conditions Index for July rose to 83, its highest value for all of 2019 thus far, as ten of twelve indicators improved, including four of its five leading indicators. That’s not to imply that there were no disappointments this month, but those have, for the most part, recently moved to the background. Perhaps the most impressive statistic for July is that the CCI at long last exceeded its year-earlier value for the first time since May of 2018.”
14) A new report from the Brookings Institution outlines steps that state and local governments can take to address the incarceration of immigration detainees.
15) True story: The weather in Providence was lovely Thursday, so I headed out to the Portu-Galo food truck in search of a spicy chicken sandwich with hot peppers. The line was super-long, so I kept walking. Before I knew it, the Providence pedestrian bridge was pulling me in its direction. The same thing probably happens to a lot of people on a nice day – a new destination beckoning where there wasn’t one before. On a related note, thanks to Rebecca Webber and Ashlie Norris for providing a great tour of CIC Providence this week. It’s an exciting space, with the potential to catalyze economic growth and bring together interesting people. Don’t miss the launch party on Friday, October 4 (6-9 pm).
