Formally Requesting the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to Implement All Provisions of the State Funding Formula for Education

WHEREAS, Pursuant to Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of the State of Rhode Island, it is the duty of the General Assembly to promote public schools, and adopt all means necessary and proper to secure the advantages and opportunities of education; and

WHEREAS, Pursuant to Article XII, Section 4 of the Constitution of the State of Rhode Island, the General Assembly is charged with making "all necessary provisions by law for carrying this article into effect" in order to promote public education; and

WHEREAS, Through statutory enactments, the General Assembly has established the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Board of Education, to implement statutory directives and mandates to oversee public education in Rhode Island at the Kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) levels; and

WHEREAS, The General Assembly recognizes that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (hereinafter, the "Department") must address many challenges and execute many tasks and directives in furtherance of its educational mission; and

WHEREAS, The General Assembly has concern that there remains a significant gap between statutory directives within the funding formula and the implementation of those directives by the Department, which gap most impacts students with the greatest needs within our schools; and

WHEREAS, Some areas of the greatest concern are in the areas of and pertain to the distribution of the permanent foundation education aid pursuant to §16-7.2-3;

WHEREAS, Areas that need to be addressed and implemented by the Department include, but are not limited to, multilingual learners funding based on actual costs and World Class Instructional Design and Assessment or WIDA assessment levels, more accurate measures of poverty indexes, and stronger communication to cities and towns regarding the amount and calculation of their local share and the district state-share ratio pursuant to §§ 16-7.2-3 and 16- 7.2-4; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island hereby respectfully requests the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to review the provisions of the State funding formula, and ensure that all aspects of education aid required by statute are being carried out to the full extent of the law; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Speaker of the House, the Governor, the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Chair of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Chair of the Board of Education.