U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona visited community colleges in Rhode Island on Wednesday as part of the Biden administration's nationwide tour touting federal investments.
What he heard was a plea for more money.
Rhode Island Department of Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green said, “One of the things I would have been remiss in not asking publicly is funding that we can actually direct.” . “You talked about the Latinx community. There's a disparity in how the Latinx community is represented in some of our industries.”
Infante-Green's response was sympathetic, but without a promise of more funding.
“We have to do more,” Cardona said. “That's true. If our country is going to grow, we have to make sure we grow everyone, especially our growing population.”
Cardona later said at a news conference that he “respects the need to invest in education” and “asks for funding.”
RI districts face fiscal cliff as pandemic funding dries up
School districts across the state are facing a fiscal cliff as federal emergency funds meant to help schools recover from the pandemic are expiring. Infante Green has already warned that layoffs are on the horizon. Providence is already expected to save $1.8 million from the closure of 360 high schools, which will result in dozens of job losses.
more:I got my RICAS score. The main points are:
“I've often heard the term 'fiscal cliff,' and I like to describe it as a passing of the baton,” Cardona said. “The aim was recovery, and what we've seen so far and what the data shows is… reading and math scores are rising across the country, and access to mental health is improving. I have confirmed that.”
However, the most recent Rhode Island Comprehensive Assessment System scores for the 2022-2023 school year showed only modest increases in reading and math scores. The year-over-year increase was about 2.7 percentage points in math and about 2 percentage points in English.
The state must spend the remaining emergency education funds by the end of this fiscal year. Cardona did not indicate that an extension would be proposed.
