Gallo Bill Speeds Up Funding for Full-Day Kindergarten Programs

Rhode Island Sen. Hannah M. Gallo has submitted a bill that would accelerate funding to the seven school districts in Rhode Island that still haven’t implemented full-day kindergarten to all of their students.

The bill would speed up a portion of the state education aid funding formula to fund full-day kindergarten programs in the hopes of helping the districts — Cranston, Johnston, Warwick, Tiverton, Coventry, East Greenwich and North Kingstown — get their programs past the start-up financial hurdles they’re facing.

The districts have been working on programs and are at various stages of implementation or study but many have been stuck because of the way the state aid has been trickling in. Districts have been receiving 25 percent of the per-pupil cost every year over four years.

The funding program is three years away from full implementation for communities that are set to see an increase in aid overall.

For districts, especially those without full-day classrooms, the startup costs are much higher than the reciprocating aid in the first years of the new funding program.

In Cranston, for example, to add four full-day classrooms in 2015 would have resulted in an additional $70,000 in funding under the existing phase-in plan.

“This was a fraction of the costs to the district,” Gallo, Chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said. “Had the funding formula been fully phased in, however, they would have received the $280,000 from the state to offset their costs of this expansion.”

In East Greenwich, a recent feasibility study concluded that the startup cost to fully implement all-day kindergarten at both of the town’s elementary schools would cost $794,055 and the town would only get $34,131 additional state funding for the implementation. A scaled down plan for K at just one school and extended instructional time for all kindergarteners at both schools would result in just $4,700 more from the state with startup costs of $589,897.

Gallo’s bill would give districts the full funding rate right out of the gate. And time is of the essence, she said.

“The increase in aid under the phase in of the funding formula is not enough to support the necessary expenses of transitioning to universal full-day kindergarten,” Gallo said. “We need to ensure that all students – regardless of where they live – have access to the benefits of full-day kindergarten. Acceleration of the formula in this targeted way removes a disincentive that is a barrier to school districts adopting full-day kindergarten in all schools.”

One of the biggest drivers of startup costs it the need to hire additional personnel and the cascading effect of additional instruction time for kindergarten students.

The bill has support from Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, who said in a statement that education is a top priority in the 2015 legislative session and a skilled workforce here in Rhode Island starts with the youngest children.

“Education is the one sure path out of poverty. The advantages of full-day kindergarten benefit children throughout their lives. I am grateful that we in the Senate have a leader like Chairwoman Gallo who has been such a steadfast champion on this issue,” Paiva Weed said.