Education

The Providence City Council is expected to vote on the new city budget tonight. The $376 million proposal includes an increase in spending for the city’s schools.

Over the weekend the city of Warwick celebrated the 245th anniversary of the burning of the British ship, the HMS Gaspee.  Many Rhode Islanders consider it one of the earliest clashes in the American Revolution. The skirmish is often overshadowed by the better known Boston Tea Party, which took place more than a year later.

Now a group of Brown University students is working to raise the profile of the Gaspee Affair. They're creating a virtual reality experience aimed at middle and high school students.

Two Rhode Island women, Ditra Edwards and Donna Childs, are the recipients of $300,000 in grants from the Rhode Island Foundation to help improve civic engagement.

The House Finance Committee is set to hear testimony on Governor Gina Raimondo's free college tuition plan Wednesday.

Rhode Island’s congressional delegation expressed skepticism after President Donald Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress, Tuesday.

The heads of three Rhode Island universities join a growing list of leaders at higher learning institutions opposing President Trump’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

Governor Gina Raimondo makes a stop at Johnston High School Tuesday to promote her initiative for free college tuition. The governor has proposed two years of free in-state tuition for Rhode Islanders on track to graduate at a community college or state university.

Governor Gina Raimondo’s plan for two years of free college tuition is grabbing most of the attention in the budget proposal for fiscal year 2018, but there’s also new funding for K-12 schools. Here are some highlights.

The governor has proposed at total of $2.6 billion for K-12 and higher education.

The State Council on Elementary and Post-Secondary Education voted Tuesday to allow a major proposed expansion of the charter school system, Achievement First, in Providence. The Connecticut-based organization could potentially grow by more than 2,000 students.

Achievement First currently operates two elementary schools in the capital city, with about 700 students. The group is hoping to expand that to three elementary schools, two middle schools, and a high school, increasing enrollment to more than 3,000.

A new study from the Chronicle of Higher Education finds the highest paid private college president in Rhode Island is Richard Gouse, head of the New England Institute of Technology.