Gov. Dan McKee (D-RI) signed into law a three-year ban on new charter schools in Rhode Island on Thursday. He told reporters that “the circumstances have changed,” despite saying five years ago that there was “no room for compromise.”
The moratorium lowers the charter school cap from 35 to 28. The law also retroactively killed charters not approved before July 1, 2025, blocking the highly anticipated De La Comunidad Bilingual School, which was meant to serve black and Hispanic students from Providence, Pawtucket, and Cranston.
McKee describes the law as a procedural measure to straighten out Rhode Island’s public school financial and enrollment woes. But Giselle, an immigrant mother whose daughter attends the bilingual charter school Nuestro Mundo, isn’t convinced…