The No. 1 thing Providence Mayor-elect Brett Smiley can learn from his predecessors is that getting big things done, from moving the rivers downtown to reforming the pension system to saving the city from financial collapse, requires you to build broad coalitions and listen to everyone – even the people you don’t agree with.
That’s why it was so disappointing to watch Mayor Jorge Elorza and former mayors Angel Taveras and Joe Paolino hold a press conference in City Hall Monday urging Smiley, who won’t take office until January, to declare war on the Providence Teachers Union by calling for the city to move to an “all-public charter” system unless the union agrees to massive contract concessions.
Elorza, Taveras, and Paolino swapped a few war stories Monday, and admitted that they didn’t get the job done on education as leaders of the city for 20 of the past 38 years. They said they don’t want Smiley to wake up eight years from now as his second term is winding down and realize he didn’t move the needle, either.
In addition to holding the teachers’ contract hostage, they also urged Smiley to continue investing in school building repairs and out-of-school learning time. Their fourth suggestion was rich: “Work with key stakeholders and amplify their voices.”
In other words: Do as we say, not as we are doing today.
Putting aside the fact that Smiley won’t even have the authority to negotiate a contract with the union because the state controls the schools, the mayors didn’t bother to put anyone else who matters in the room. When I asked Elorza if he had talked to Governor Dan McKee about the charter school idea, he said that was up to Smiley to do.
So there was no governor, no state lawmakers whom the mayors acknowledge they need to change a teacher tenure law or fix the funding formula, and no one from the Rhode Island Department of Education, which would be required to sign off on a large expansion of charter schools. There were no teachers, parents, or students to be found, either.
They couldn’t even get any charter school leaders to join their parade because the charter school leaders aren’t dying to expand further. There is plenty of demand for charter schools because they far outperform most of the traditional public schools in Providence, but the organizations that run charters are having trouble finding building space and high-quality teachers.
In the current school year, about 6,234 students from Providence attend charter schools, according to the Rhode Island Department of Education. That number is likely to grow closer to 10,000 over the next decade as part of already-approved expansion plans from Achievement First and Excel Academy.
It’s not as though the mayors huddled over the weekend and came to the conclusion that the first thing they needed to do Monday morning was to urge the new mayor to pick a fight with the teachers. Elorza has been running around town for weeks trying to build support for a more aggressive approach involving charter schools, and he largely struck out.
No one wants to be associated with a lame duck mayor who might be popular among city residents, but has virtually no political clout left. Taveras and Paolino came along for the ride, but make no mistake, this was orchestrated by Elorza.
The saddest part of Monday’s press conference is that the mayors are absolutely correct that Smiley should show a sense of urgency when it comes to education.
He’d be making a mistake if he simply writes off the dysfunctional state takeover and leaves it to McKee and Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green to handle while he focuses on sexier things like economic development or looming battles with Brown University and other nonprofits over payments in lieu of taxes.
But Elorza and Taveras learned firsthand that it’s nearly impossible for a mayor to win a fight with the teachers’ union, especially if you go it alone.
Providence teachers still complain about Taveras firing all of them in 2011, even though virtually none of them actually lost their jobs. Teachers are one of the key reasons he didn’t win the Democratic primary for governor in 2014. And the teachers’ refusal to make even modest changes to the contract in 2018 with Elorza is what laid the groundwork for the state takeover.
At this point, the relationship between the Providence Teachers Union and anyone in any position of authority has soured to a point where they aren’t going to agree to any changes. Union leadership knows that teachers are more popular in the General Assembly than any mayor, commissioner, or governor. Even the Senate Oversight Committee has proved to be in the tank for the union.
As a new face in City Hall, Smiley at least gives the city a chance of a reset, although it was a tad concerning that he acknowledged he still hasn’t met with union leadership since winning his Democratic primary in September.
If the mayors really wanted to help, they would have taken Smiley to lunch and compared notes, and maybe offered some not-so public advice. They could even help him craft a plan that doesn’t come across as a threat.
For example, Providence still has plenty of federal money to throw around. Work with the state to use it to offer a deal the teachers couldn’t afford to pass up: Make them the highest paid teachers in New England in exchange for a longer school day and a longer school year, and make it easier for principals to hire and fire teachers.
Instead, the mayors managed to air their grievances while advocating for an idea that has no chance of coming to fruition. As for Smiley, he isn’t ready to commit to moving to an all-charter school district. He probably deserves the chance to, you know, be sworn in before making that promise.
“I learned years ago that there is only one mayor at a time,” Paolino said during the press conference.
For good reason.
Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him @danmcgowan.