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Cranston council urges state action on school transport bills, presses for fair funding formula
Summary
The Cranston City Council on May 27 passed a resolution supporting state bills on out-of-district student transportation and adopted a resolution urging restoration of a school funding formula the council says would net Cranston roughly $800,000.
The Cranston City Council on May 27 voted to support a state-level school transportation measure and adopted a separate resolution calling for restoration of the public-school fair funding formula that, the council says, would benefit Cranston by nearly $800,000.
Both items were introduced in the ordinance committee and moved to the full council for passage. The first resolution publicly backed House Bill 5420 and Senate Bills 636 and 397, which the council said relate to out-of-district transportation for homeless and private-school students. The second resolution urged the state to revert recent changes to its public-school funding calculation that the council said reduced Cranston’s expected state aid.
Councilman Andahar introduced the school-transportation resolution and urged passage on the council floor. Councilman Buono, speaking on the fair-funding measure, said the formula “would benefit Cranston in the amount of almost $800,000,” and criticized recent state adjustments that he said “created a net loss for Cranston.” Buono added that the formula “is not supposed to be adjusted, willy nilly.”
Mayor Traficante also spoke during committee remarks, expressing appreciation for increased state funding overall during the legislative session. Council Vice President Wall asked to be added as a co-sponsor to the transportation resolution; several members were added as co-sponsors to both measures during the meeting.
Both resolutions were approved by roll call in the meeting; the council did not specify amendments to either resolution during debate. The transportation resolution explicitly names the three state bills it supports; the fair-funding resolution states the council’s position and requests that the formula be returned to its prior calculation.
The council did not set any local implementation changes tied to the resolutions; both are expressions of the council’s position and request for state action.
