Portsmouth legislators (l-r) Rep. John Loughlin, Rep. Ray Gallison, Sen. Chuck Levesque, Rep. Jay Edwards listen to school committee.

The Portsmouth School Committee met last night with the town's legislative delegation, and unsurprisingly, the major topic of conversation was the proposed funding formula.

Because of our odd district boundaries, Portsmouth has four representatives in the General Assembly: Ray Gallison, Jay Edwards, John Loughlin, and Amy Rice. Rice had a prior commitment, but the other three reps, as well as our state senator Chuck Levesque, were on hand for the hour-long review of the upcoming legislative agenda and its impact on schools.

Understandably, the first question school committee chair Dick Carpender asked was about the funding formula.

There seemed to be general consensus among the legislators that this session would see a formula passed, based on its importance as a requirement for Federal Race To The Top funding. There was also, however, a general sense that the present proposal from RIDE was not without its issues and that tweaks by the legislature were likely.

"I don't think this will be the formula you see come out," said Gallison. "It's an automatic tax increase on the town of Portsmouth. People in Portsmouth are taxed to their capacity now."

Jay Edwards noted there were other funding bills circulating which were "a lot worse," and that at least Commissioner Gist was recommending revisions to the S3050 tax cap.

Loughlin, who is running on the Republican side for the 1st. Congressional district, recommended a look back at the original Ajello proposal. That was driven by a legislative commission which brought in a consultant to look at costs and develop a formula. "It was empirically based," said Loughlin, "And the original formula was pretty good. But they kept tinkering with the variables until it favored urban schools." (That was the commission, I believe, which came up with a core education number of $10,600 compared to the $8,295 in the RIDE version.)

"The average per-pupil is the worst policy decision Gist made in the process," said Levesque. He argued that a formula inherently springs from and drives policy, and that it should not be about numbers, but rather, priorities. "What we have to do is look at the formula and determine if the values are fair. If it benefits Portsmouth or not, if it's fair, it's going to be our obligation to support it."

Levesque clearly did not think the RIDE proposal met that standard. "This took the [funding] status quo as the goal," he said. "That's where the Commissioner was the most wrong."

School Committee member Marge Levesque read the legislators a resolution to be taken up at the meeting this evening, asking that RIDE's formula be reviewed by an independent nationally recognized expert, a suggestion that Supt. Susan Lusi echoed.

"There are real policy decisions in here," she said to the delegation, "And it's your decision." [Under the RI Constitution Art XII, Sec 1, school funding is the exclusive prerogative of the legislature.] Lusi urged the delegation to consider Marge Levesque's suggestion for external review. "I do not assume that we would get the same level of aid," said Lusi, "But I'm still trying to wrap my head around Portsmouth getting only 13 percent."

The committee also probed the delegation on the likelihood of tweaks to the S3050 cap, in particular the proposal from Carpender to allow towns to keep growth. Under the current law, an increase in the tax base can only be used to reduce the tax rate. Lusi observed, "If we're going to be penalized for wealth [in the funding formula, which weights a community's ability to pay], it is not inequitable for us to keep the growth."

Other legislative items discussed included group home aid, tort reform, meeting notification requirements, and the interstate compact which assists transferring military families.