Elisabeth Harrison

The House Labor Committee holds a hearing today on repealing what’s known as the Caruolo Act. The law, now infamous in Rhode Island education circles, allows school committees to sue their city or town for more funding.

There have been several attempts to do away with the Caruolo Act, but so far none have succeeded. Critics say it is nonsensical for an arm of local government to essentially sue itself, and local officials complain the lawsuits rack up expensive legal bills and sour relations between city and school leaders.

Brown University once again led the pack in Rhode Island in fundraising last year, bringing in a little more than $178 million. The University of Rhode Island was a distant second at $12.7 million, a drop of $6 million compared with 2011.

Donations were also down at Rhode Island College, which raised $1.36 million, and at the Rhode Island School of Design, which still came in second overall. RISD raised a total of nearly $6.8 million.

Rhode Island has released test scores that show 73 percent of public school students are proficient in reading and just 57 percent are proficient in Math. The numbers were relatively flat compared to previous years, so for more analysis we turned to State Education Commissioner Deborah Gist. She spoke with Rhode Island Public Radio’s Education Reporter Elisabeth Harrison.

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Advances in technology have changed the types of skills needed to land a well-paying job. In this Policy & Pinot discussion, Education Reporter Elisabeth Harrison examine how the state is retooling the education system from K-12 and beyond to prepare students for 21st Century jobs. Panelists are David Abbott, Deputy Rhode Island Commissioner of Education, Katherine Bergeron, Dean of the College at Brown University, John Hazen White, Jr., President of Taco, Inc., Steven Kitchin, Vice President for Corporate Education and Training at New England Institute of Technology.

Brown University will increase tuition and fees by four percent for the upcoming school year, for a grand total of $57,232.

The university plans to offset the cost hike with a 5.6 percent increase in financial aid, the fastest growing part of its budget.

Several Rhode Island school districts are still delaying the start of school, several days after a major snowstorm hit the state.

Most of the delays are in the South County, with Jamestown, North Kingstown, Narragansett, Westerly and South Kingstown all reporting a one-hour delay in the start of the school day.

Chariho and Tiverton also started school later than usual this morning. Some districts have also canceled Kindergarten and early childhood programs.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan speaks with Rhode Island Public Radio’s Elisabeth Harrison about the progress the Ocean State is making in education.

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