An agreement between the City and the Rhode Island Department of Education will address the multi-million budget deficit currently straining the Providence Public School District and provide more funding moving forward. Tax increases for homeowners and businesses in 2026 are now to be expected.
The agreement comes after two rulings by the Rhode Island Superior Court found that the City must provide additional funding to the district. Last Wednesday, Mayor Brett Smiley and RIDE reached a deal regarding exactly how much additional funding the City must provide.
The details of that agreement were released on Friday. The City must provide $4 million in additional funding for fiscal year 2024, $11 million in additional funding for the 2025 fiscal year, $147 million in total funding for the 2026 fiscal year and $147 million in base funding for the 2027 fiscal year. Additional funding for the 2027 fiscal year will be determined based on the percentage increase in total state educational aid.
The City Council still has to approve the settlement. Shortly after, the first payment of $5 million will be made to PPSD, Smiley said at a press conference.
PPSD reported a nearly $11 million budget deficit for the 2024-25 school year. In response, PPSD proposed numerous budget cuts, including getting rid of winter and spring sports and eliminating RIPTA bus passes for high school students living within one and two miles of their schools. After the agreement, these cuts will no longer be enacted.
“With this agreement in place, PPSD is now in a stronger position to help students thrive,” said Patti DiCenso, Chair of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, in a press release.
To help close the deficit, the district will use both the $4 million it will receive from the City this year and funding from its approximately $12 million in reserves, said Zachary Scott, deputy superintendent of operations for the PPSD, at a press conference on Friday.
Julianna Espinal, a 16-year-old PPSD student and member of Take Back PVD — a student activist group that has been advocating for better school funding — said she’s glad the City will be gradually increasing its funding of the district after this year.
“We can’t just raise it by $15 million for this school year and then never touch it again,” she said.
“It’s good that this fight is over so we can actually focus on the things that are ahead of us,” said Corey Jones, a newly-elected School Board member from the East Side of Providence.
According to Superintendent Javier Montañez, PPSD is currently in negotiations with the Providence Teachers Union, which could also impact the district’s budget moving forward if salaries or benefits agreements evolve.
Before the agreement was announced, the City said the expected immediate funding increase could range from $10 million to $85 million. Smiley and City Council President Rachel Miller said a tax increase and cuts to vital city services were at risk.
At a Friday press conference, Smiley confirmed the police academy, fire academy, libraries and recreation centers were safe from cuts. Tax increases are expected for FY2026 for both businesses and homeowners, he said.
“It is certainly going to be over the 4% property tax cap, and so we will be going to the General Assembly for approval of that,” Smiley said. “It is our plan that we will only have to do that once.”
Some members of the General Assembly have already stated that they will not support a tax increase. At the press conference, Smiley said he’ll work to convince the General Assembly that this is “a necessary step” in order to “properly fund our schools.”
“We’re going to need to spend a couple months talking to residents about how we can lower the burden on working class citizens,” Jones said.
During the court proceedings, the City had expressed concerns about PPSD’s budget management. The agreement announced Friday includes a fiscal review of the district’s budget, Smiley said at the press conference. That process will commence soon, he added.
Jones said that he would encourage the district to work “with the school board to be diligent about every penny we spend and ensure that it’s all going back to support students.”
Smiley reiterated his intent to take back control of the district, which has been controlled by the state since 2019, “as soon as possible.” Earlier this year, RIDE decided to continue the takeover for up to three years.
Jones shared Smiley’s desire to take back control of the schools. He said the state takeover has successfully led to some school renovations and capital improvements and that, with the agreement, the state can “claim a victory when it comes to plugging the structural deficit” in PPSD’s budget.
But Jones believes that the takeover has not successfully improved academic performance, which he thinks can be done at the local level.
When asked at a Friday press conference about returning the schools to local control sooner, Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Angélica Infante-Green said “we’ll see.”
Ciara Meyer is a senior staff writer from Saratoga Springs, New York. She plans on concentrating in Statistics and English Nonfiction. In her free time, she loves scrapbooking and building lego flowers.
