The Other Coast on Hangin’ With the Conservatives in Rhode Island

A resident of the other coast has posted his impressions of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies' Northeast Conservative Conference held at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick this past weekend. Two Rhode Island speakers made a strong impression on Steve Frank, a contributor to the California Conservative blog. One was Steve Laffey...

I met the Mayor of Cranston, Steve Laffey. He is running a strong race against Senator Lincoln Chafee–the deciding vote in favor of McCain-Feingold. Laffey, is very articulate, an MBA from Harvard and a successful businessman in the finance field. He is solid on the issue, believes we need to secure the borders first, cut taxes, in order to increase revenues and the assets you have already paid taxes on should go to your children and family, not to the government. This is going to be a winner, on September 12 and in the November election.

But, if you want to hear about a tragedy, listen to what happened in Providence, Rhode Island! Several years ago, they created 4 charter schools, each has become among the top rated schools in the city. So what did the unions do? They got the City Council (sic) to put a moratorium on the creation of any new charter schools….On the east side of Providence, one area has 2200 kids eligible to be in K-12. But, the Republican candidate for Mayor, Dave Talan, noted that only 60 of them actually go to public schools. This is a rich area, so the families get the best education they can buy. Of course, almost no kids on the south side go to private schools, this is the minority area of the city. Private schools which rate academically higher that the public schools in the area, cost on the average of $4,000 per student per year. Public schools cost $12,000. In a district of 36,000 students, over 8,000 have left for either private schools or charter schools–more would leave if they could afford it.