Rhode Island pauses new charter schools amid public school declining enrollment, local budget pressures

by RINewsToday News Team

In one of the most politically charged education decisions of the legislative year, Governor Dan McKee has signed into law a three-year moratorium on new and expanded charter public schools in Rhode Island, a decision that will stop De La Comunidad Bilingual Public Charter School from opening after it had already received preliminary state approval.

The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Melissa Murray, a North Smithfield Democrat, and Rep. Mary Messier, a Pawtucket Democrat, bars the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education from approving new or expanded charter schools beginning with the 2026-27 school year. It also bars state approval or funding for new charter schools that were not approved before July 1, 2025.

The bill was signed by McKee on June 18.

The new law directly affects De La Comunidad Bilingual Public Charter School, which had been preparing to open in fall 2027 as a K-12 dual-language, full-service community charter school serving students from Providence, Pawtucket and Cranston.

The school had completed the Rhode Island Department of Education’s charter review process and received a recommendation for preliminary approval from Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green. RIDE’s review said the proposed school met the standard for providing high-quality academic opportunities and recommended that the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education preliminarily approve the school to serve 628 students at full enrollment.

RIDE’s review described De La Comunidad as a K-12 public charter school with an English-Spanish immersion model, designed to graduate students bilingual and biliterate. The proposed school also included a full-service community school model, with supports for students and families.

According to RIDE documents, the public comment period for the school ran from July 30 to Oct. 6, 2025, with three public hearings. RIDE reported receiving 1,778 spoken and written comments, with 1,754 in support and 24 opposed.

By the numbers

• 135,978 students were enrolled in Rhode Island public schools, preschool through grade 12, on Oct. 1, 2024, according to Rhode Island KIDS COUNT using RIDE data.
• That was down from 141,959 students on Oct. 1, 2014 — a 4% decline over 10 years.
• Close to 13,000 students attend Rhode Island charter public schools, according to the Rhode Island League of Charter Public Schools, based on 2023-24 enrollment.
• Rhode Island charter public schools include district charter schools, independent charter schools and mayoral academies, according to RIDE.
• In addition to public school enrollment, Rhode Island had 13,808 students in private and parochial schools and 3,086 homeschooled students, according to the 2025 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook.

Governor’s Support for Charter Schools

Gov. McKee’s decision is notable because he has long been associated with support for charter schools and mayoral academies. As mayor of Cumberland, he supported Blackstone Valley Prep and the creation of mayoral academies. In 2021, he opposed a similar moratorium.

This time, McKee said the situation had changed. In his transmittal message, he pointed to declining enrollment, saying Rhode Island’s public education system has more than 10,000 fewer students than it had in 2021. He said the decline has created financial pressure for municipalities and school districts, especially as the state evaluates possible changes to the school funding formula.

Gov. McKee said a temporary moratorium gives the state time to make those assessments while focusing on strengthening the schools already serving Rhode Island students, including an evaluation of existing charter schools, and should not be read as opposition to existing charter schools, and reinforced that the state wants to continue supporting charters already in place.

Why supporters say a pause is needed

Supporters of the moratorium point to several pressures on Rhode Island’s public education system:

• Declining enrollment: Rhode Island has more than 10,000 fewer students in its public education system than it had in 2021, according to McKee’s transmittal message.
• Charter funding structure: When a student attends a charter school, tuition follows that student from the home district to the charter school, while the sending district often continues to carry fixed costs for buildings, staffing, transportation, special education and other obligations.
• School funding formula review: State leaders are weighing possible changes to Rhode Island’s education funding formula, including how state and local dollars are distributed among districts and schools.
• Pressure on city and town budgets: Municipalities and school districts say rising education costs, declining enrollment and fixed expenses are putting increasing strain on local budgets.

Supporters of the moratorium say those issues should be reviewed before Rhode Island adds new charter seats or approves new charter schools.

Opponents say…

Opponents say the moratorium limits public school options for families and, in the case of De La Comunidad, interrupts a school that had already gone through the state’s review process and received preliminary approval. Supporters of charter schools also say the law goes beyond a temporary pause because it also lowers the statewide cap on charter schools from 35 to 28.

Charter school advocates had urged Gov. McKee to veto the bill before he signed it. The Rhode Island League of Charter Schools and several business groups also called for a veto, arguing that educational options and school outcomes are workforce and economic-development issues. After the bill was signed, Chiara Deltito-Sharrot, executive director of the Rhode Island League of Charter Public Schools has said that the pause removes one of the charter system’s key features: the ability to close low-performing schools, expand higher-performing schools and open new schools when a community identifies a need.

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers also urged a veto of the legislation, raising concerns about both family access to public school options and the integrity of Rhode Island’s charter approval process.

School leaders said the decision is painful for families who participated in the process in good faith.

“Rhode Island has worked to create an authorization process that is thorough, transparent, and focused on ensuring schools are prepared to serve students and families,” said Carol Aguasvivas, board chair of De La Comunidad Bilingual Public Charter School. “When a school completes that process and receives preliminary approval, families deserve confidence that the work, evaluation, and commitment behind that decision are being respected. Our focus is on ensuring students and families have access to high-quality educational opportunities and that the process continues to be fair and consistent.”

Joshua Laplante, founding superintendent of De La Comunidad Bilingual, said families, educators, students and community leaders had worked together around the vision of a dual-language school.

“For the families who helped build this school, this is an incredibly painful moment,” Laplante said. “Parents, educators, community leaders, and students came together around a shared vision of a school where children could become bilingual, biliterate, and academically prepared for the future. They participated in the process the state asked them to participate in, and they did so in good faith. Today, many of those families are left wondering whether their voices ever truly mattered.”

Laplante said the legislation does not erase the need families identified.

“While this legislation may stop this school from moving forward, it does not erase the need that families identified, the community support that made this effort possible, or the belief that every child deserves access to a high-quality public school that meets their needs,” he said. “The conversations that led to De La Comunidad Bilingual are far from over.”

Political Distinctions

The issue also creates a distinction in the Democratic primary for governor. Helena Foulkes (D), who will face Gov. McKee in the primary, has opposed the charter school moratorium. The contrast comes as education funding, school choice, district finances and student outcomes remain major issues in Rhode Island’s public education debate – and in every city and town council and school committee budgeting process.

For now, the law means no new charter public schools will be approved to open in Rhode Island until at least 2029.

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Publisher’s Note:
This issue is more complicated than a simple pro-charter or anti-charter debate. Declining enrollment, rising municipal costs and Rhode Island’s school funding formula all deserve serious review. At the same time, families measure schools not only by budgets and formulas, but by whether a child is safe, known, challenged and supported. Three years is a long pause in a child’s education, and De La Comunidad Bilingual raises a separate fairness question because it had already completed the state review process and received preliminary approval before the moratorium was signed.