PROVIDENCE — On February 1, during a press conference at Smithfield High School, Gov. Gina Raimondo announced a budget initiative to offer the SAT and PSAT free to all Rhode Island public high school students. The program, which will be implemented during the 2016-2017 school year, has been widely praised for its efforts to open up college access to students across the state.
“This is about leveling the playing field and increasing access to opportunities to help Rhode Island’s kids succeed,” Raimondo said in a press release. “Providing these tests for free is about equity — this ensures that all students, regardless of economic circumstances, can use these tests to consider higher education opportunities.”
However, for many parents of private or home-schooled students, the program offers not equity but a sharp disparity in the educational opportunities available to their children. While public and charter school students statewide may take the SAT for free, students who attend Catholic, other religious or independent high schools, as well as home schoolers, are excluded from the program, placing them at a disadvantage in the college application process.
“It’s discriminating against students and families who choose options outside of public school,” said Kate Egan, a member of Rhode Island’s Catholic School Parents Federation, whose oldest daughter is a sophomore at St. Mary Academy – Bay View. “The SAT and PSAT have nothing to do with where they go to school, it’s all about the future. As a taxpayer, I was frustrated.”
Egan and other members of the Parents Federation, as well as homeschooling parents and administrators of independent and religious schools across the state, have long fought to maintain public benefits such as textbooks and busing for their students. In recent months, however, many have expressed concern about what they see as a growing trend in allocation of state education resources toward programs that have little or nothing to do with the school curriculum or location, and yet are restricted to public school students.
Egan brought up the example of a dual enrollment program, established last year, that allows high school students to take courses for dual high school and college credit at state university campuses or online, but is only available free of charge to public high school students. Private school students or home schoolers must pay upwards of $200 per class, even though they take the courses in the same university setting. She compared the dual enrollment and SAT programs with other public educational resources that exist outside the school curriculum and have long been made available to students regardless of school affiliation.
“They’re resources, they’re taxpayer resources. My kids go to private school, should they not then go to my public library?” she said.
The SAT is widely considered a necessary step for college-bound high school students, with 1.7 million members of the class of 2015 taking it nationwide. According to College Board, the organization that administers the test, 76.8% of last year’s Rhode Island graduating class took the SAT. College Board charges $54 each time a student registers for the test, a fee that, when combined with other costs associated with applying to college, can pose a significant challenge to some students.
Elliot Krieger, responding on behalf of the Department of Education and the Governor’s Office when Rhode Island Catholic reached out for comment, indicated that economic concerns played a major role in the program’s development.
“Equity is the driving factor behind the proposed funding for SATs and PSATs in Governor Raimondo’s budget,” he said in an email. “Consistent with our policies that direct aid to students enrolled in public schools, this program aims to increase access to college by enabling 10th and 11th-grade students in our public high schools to take the PSAT and the SAT at no cost to themselves or their families. Many of these students might not otherwise have the incentive or opportunity to do so because of their financial resources and because of transportation issues.”
According to several private school administrators, the assumption that restricting free SATs to public high schools will improve college access for low-income students fails to take into account the diversity of populations served by private schools around the state.
Data compiled by the Catholic Schools Office shows that 15 percent of students in the state’s eight Catholic high schools qualify for free or reduced lunch based on income. In some schools, this number is higher, and at St. Patrick Academy, a school dedicated to serving low-income students as part of its mission statement, more than two-thirds of the student body demonstrates the required financial need to qualify for free or reduced lunch.
“At St. Patrick Academy, 70 percent of our families live below the poverty line, 70 percent are single-parent families and 40 percent don't pay a dime in tuition because they can't afford to,” said Bruce Daigle, principal of St. Patrick Academy. “Refusing to include these students in the governor's plan contradicts the intent of that plan and fails to level the playing field.”
Other private school administrators throughout the state reflected similar concerns. Rabbi Peretz Scheinerman, dean of Providence Hebrew Day School and New England Academy of Torah, pointed out that 75 percent of his schools’ families receive full financial aid, while Rachel McGuire, advancement associate at Barrington Christian Academy, said many of her school’s students also demonstrate financial need and would benefit from the free SAT.
“We are in line with the thinking that it’s underprivileged students that need additional assistance, but to say that those kids don’t exist in the private sector is not correct,” she said.
Edward Bastia, business administrator of the Catholic Schools Office, expressed concern that policies restricting educational resources by school affiliation create divisions between public and private school administrators who hold common goals of improving education for students.
“I really think that we should look at bridging these differences and building partnerships rather than being adversarial with this,” he said. “For the governor to say that the qualifying criteria is the building where they’re educated, where did that come from?”
Ultimately, for parents, the issue comes down to investing in the education of Rhode Island high school students. Egan said she supports opening up college access through educational enrichment, but questioned whether the policy’s implementation reflects its goals.
“If the goals are truly to give all the students in Rhode Island the best chances, they’re missing the boat,” she said. “There are thousands who are not enrolled in the public schools, but their futures are just as important as those in the public schools.”
