Charter school expansion will be up for discussion Tuesday at the state Council on Elementary and Secondary Education. One proposal from charter management group Achievement First has generated objections in Providence. But the state’s education commissioner is backing the plan.
State Education Commissioner Ken Wagner says Achievement First should get a green light for its plan to add more than 2,000 students over the next decade. Providence officials have warned this could hurt the city’s other public schools. That’s because millions of federal, state and local dollars would follow those students into the charter school.
But Wagner says Achievement First has shown its students earn better test scores than the average in Providence schools. Wagner has recommended yes for this and two smaller charter school expansions. He’s called for the rejection of expansions at three other charter schools.