Incumbent Gov. Dan McKee is up for reelection tomorrow and is facing a tough primary challenge from former CVS Pharmacy President Helena Foulkes. The latest polling shows McKee trailing Foulkes by 38 points, making his chances of staying in office slim. In a last-ditch effort to gain momentum for his floundering campaign this June — when polls had him down by 20 points, the governor signed a moratorium on new charter schools and sabotaged Rhode Island’s participation in a federal education tax credit scholarship program to gain support from the powerful teachers unions. In doing so, McKee is betting that by selling out students, he can win the primary with the support of teachers.
McKee has long been a proponent of charter schools. He previously opposed a more lenient moratorium on charter schools and was awarded the Charter Champion Award by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in 2009 for his advocacy in starting the state’s Mayoral Academy charter school program as mayor of Cumberland. Yet, in June, the governor signed a law blocking new charter schools from opening for the next three years and lowering the number of charters allowed to operate in the state from 35 to 28. Four days after signing the moratorium into law, his charter school award was rescinded.
This is not a popular policy. An April poll found that 78% of Rhode Islanders support increased access to charter schools for children and 58% oppose the moratorium. Even with the current 24 charter schools open in the state, the demand from families far exceeds the seats available. This past school year, 30,202 students applied to enroll in a charter school, yet there were only 3,170 available spots. That means it’s harder to get into a charter school in Rhode Island than to get into Brown early decision. McKee’s 180-degree turn on policy is a slap in the face to families who wish to see better results for their children than the historically dismal prospects offered by local traditional public schools.
So why the sudden shift for McKee? He needs the support of the large teachers unions, which oppose charter school expansion, to have a chance of winning the Democratic primary on Sept. 9. After signing the moratorium, The Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals and the National Education Association of Rhode Island — two teachers unions with over 20,000 members combined — endorsed McKee for reelection. This represents about a fifth of the number of voters who cast their ballots in the last R.I. Democratic governor primary.
Teachers unions are often fierce critics of charter schools and blame them for reducing public school enrollment and therefore reducing allocated per-pupil funding. But these unions are misled. Poor academic instruction could lead families to pull their students out of public schools and make charter schools more appealing. The 10,000-student decline in public school enrollment across the state since 2021 is, of course, not solely the fault of teachers. It is likely that the violence in schools, low academic expectations from the state, chronic absenteeism and a dysfunctional bureaucracy cited by a Johns Hopkins University study of the Providence Public School District also contributed to this decline — not to mention a national trend of dips in public school enrollment. But McKee’s anti-charter school approach to addressing the drop-off in enrollment caters to the unions at the expense of the state youth’s access to quality education.
Notably, the moratorium will prevent De La Comunidad Bilingual Public Charter School, which was set to begin teaching next year, from opening its doors to local students. The school has sued McKee and other government officials for breaking a state contract. The state had previously given De La Comunidad preliminary approval to open. This backtrack will prevent 140 students from Cranston, Pawtucket and Providence from receiving a high-quality bilingual education.
But McKee’s abandonment of Rhode Island’s families did not end with his decision on charter schools. On the same day he signed the moratorium, he also signed a law that blocks him from joining the Education Freedom Tax Credit program unless he first receives approval from the General Assembly. This Trump administration program allows taxpayers, in states whose governors opt in, to send up to $1,700 of their federal taxes to local nonprofits that support K-12 students. By signing a law that requires the approval of the state legislature, McKee is taking the easy way out, as he knows that the legislature has no interest in participating in the program.
The lead sponsor of the bill, State Rep. Susan Donovan (D-Bristol, Portsmouth), complained that the program, which is part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, would take funding away from our public schools. But only 13.3% of the state’s public school funding for the 2023-24 school year came from the federal government, as public school funding is primarily a state’s responsibility. Not a single dollar of Rhode Island’s state education funding would be used, since the credit applies to federal taxes. The program, if allowed in Rhode Island, is estimated to raise $285 million that would go toward “tuition, fees, books, supplies, other equipment, academic tutoring and special needs services.” Yes, some of these scholarships would go to private school students, but public school students would still benefit greatly from tutoring and supplies scholarships. I’d rather this money go directly toward Rhode Island’s kids than be given to President Trump for him to fund his reckless agenda.
The teachers unions happen to oppose the credit. The National Education Association of Rhode Island lobbied for the state to opt out of the tax credit program, claiming that “every dollar diverted through voucher-style tax credits is a dollar unavailable for classroom instruction, special education, student supports and educator staffing,” even though they know that the money would not necessarily be used to support schools if given to the federal government. McKee seems to have listened to their demands and signed away his control over the decision as a way to gain cheap political points, as former Providence Mayor and current CEO of Democrats for Education Reform Jorge Elorza alleged in a recent opinion piece. And after McKee caved, he got what it seems he wanted: a teachers union endorsement.
Straight out of King Louis XIV’s playbook, Gov. McKee declared in a recent election debate, “I am the state of Rhode Island.” It’s no shocker that a politician, claiming he is the state, is prioritizing his reelection prospects over supporting quality education for the state’s youth. McKee sold his soul to the teachers unions — voters will decide his fate.
Ethan Canfield ’28 can be reached at ethan_canfield@brown.edu. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
Ethan Canfield is the head of the Editorial Page Board and an opinions editor. He previously was a columnist and a copy editor for the Herald. He is a junior from Houston, Texas and is studying Applied Mathematics-Biology.
