The outlook for Rhode Island’s charter schools – The Boston Globe

The charter school movement has mostly flown under the radar in Rhode Island politics in recent years, and that’s just how they like it. But 2025 could be an interesting year as one mayoral academy seeks to make a big change, other schools consider unionizing, and a potential new school goes back to the drawing board.

Here’s a look at the lay of the land.

There are two kinds of charter schools in Rhode Island: Most are considered independents, but some are mayoral academies, which require a municipal chief executive to serve as chair of the board. Mayoral academies were spearheaded by Governor Dan McKee when he was mayor of Cumberland, and they have historically faced stronger push back from teachers’ unions because some of them are part of larger national or regional networks of charter schools (like Achievement First).

RISE Prep, a 3-star mayoral academy that admits students from Woonsocket, North Smithfield, and Burrillville, has been given the go-ahead to switch from a mayoral academy to an independent school. In its proposal, the school said the change “will mitigate instability and unpredictability,” both financially and politically. 

We know that teachers at Highlander Charter School and Paul Cuffee voted to unionize in 2024, and the state’s two teachers’ unions are engaged in conversations with other charter school teachers about joining, too. One big question is whether the incoming Trump administration will seek to roll back some of the rules set by President Joe Biden’s administration that made it easier to unionize. 

The other key question is what kind of contracts the teachers at Highlander and Cuffee will get during negotiations this year. Highlander joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2323, and Cuffee’s teachers are now members of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals. If the unions can win favorable terms for their new members, other charter schools could follow.

The New England Institute of Technology was hoping to open a high school focused on career and technical education in September, but it faced resistance from organized labor and decided to pump the brakes on the proposal. The idea still has support at both the university and from Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green, but it could be difficult to open a new charter school that is opposed by labor in 2026 because it’s an election year.

This story first appeared in Rhode Map, our free newsletter about Rhode Island that also contains information about local events, links to interesting stories, and more. If you’d like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.

Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him @danmcgowan.