March 5, 2010
Dear constituents,
The 2010 political season is going to be an exciting and vigorous one, with Congressional races, a new Mayor for Providence and many council seats up for grabs. In an attempt to keep in touch during this time, I’ll be updating the web page, and asking you to keep in touch with me by letting me know what issues mean the most to you.
Providence Mayoral Race
First, I want you all to know that after meeting and speaking with nearly all of the announced and would-be mayoral candidates, I have decided to support Angel Taveras’ candidacy for Mayor of Providence. I belive that Angel will actively support the issues important to us – such as quality public education, continued government reform, support for the arts, development of mass transit, attracting Federal funding to the city, and efficient use of local tax dollars. I would be grateful if you would consider supporting Angel, and am including links to his web site for your persusal here: http://angelforprovidence.com/en/wood-endorsement.html
Public Education Funding
Next, there are two important issues of public school funding you should know about.
The first is that the State of Rhode Island is one of 16 finalists in the $4-billion federal “Race to the Top” competition , designed to reward states that embrace radical school reforms. The US Department of Education announced the finalists Thursday from among the 40 states and the District of Columbia that applied for the unprecedented infusion of federal aid for public schools. For more information, see www.projo.com/news/content/race_to_the_top_finalist_03-05-10_OJHLMJ6_v39.3a6a132.html
The second, and related, issue is the state’s lack of a public education funding formula . The fact that Rhode Island is the only state in the nation without a state education funding formula was fundamental issue during my council campaign. Because education aid is allocated based on the previous year’s funding amounts, and does not take into account student enrollment figures, student need, and the local district’s ability to raise property taxes, districts with fewer students have been receiving disproportionately larger shares of the education funding for many years. With school expenditures representing more than 50% of our city budget, cuts to state funding inevitably lead to increased property taxes. We are overdue for an equitable, per-child funding formula. The need for reform is further exacerbated by the fact that “Race to the Top” funding is designed to reward states that embrace reforms to improve schools, and we will be at a competitive disadvantage without a funding formula. Please urge your State Representatives and Senators to pass public education funding reform this session.
Potholes!
Finally, potholes. They’re all over and I’m hearing from many you about it. Thank you for making me aware of where they are so that I can send Public Works out to fix them. If there are potholes that merit reporting you can also let the folks at the Office of Neighborhood Services know about them at 421-2489. They will report the locations to DPW and track their repair.
If you have anything you’d like to discuss or share please feel free to give me a call at or send a message to cliff@councilmancliff.com.
Sincerely,
Cliff