CityState : Q & A
stuff , but to help the students apply it . And then once a week , they meet with a lab faculty person . Everyone graduates with a project that they care about .
Outside of your own organization , who do you think is getting it right in Rhode Island ? I believe in small schools that are more personalized , so I think a lot of the small schools are doing a good job . Who wants to put 2,000 adolescents together in a school ? Man , I think that ’ s cuckoo . I think it ’ s the small schools that are doing a more personalized job . There are some great ones and not great ones . I don ’ t really know specifically , and I don ’ t want to get myself into pinpointing . But I do believe small , personalized , built around the student [ models ] is when you get the best results .
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What about charter schools ? Those have grown significantly in the three decades since you started the Met . I believe in parent choice . I believe in small schools . I know the union feels — and a lot of people feel — it takes away from the public school , but they are public schools . I explain to people they ’ re public schools , they ’ re just running in a different way . Charter schools just allow people to do something different . There ’ s nothing magical about charter . There are bad ones . There are traditional ones . There are military charter schools . There are progressive charter schools . But I do believe that parents should have some choice . Because once you make a choice , you ’ re a little more committed to your school .
What do you think is the biggest challenge for today ’ s high school graduates ? People used to make a big deal about getting kids into college . They never understood colleges are business . It ’ s easy to get kids into college . The hard part is getting kids to finish . It ’ s always cost . In many cases , it ’ s an irrelevant curriculum . And the worst part is the insecurity that people have , even when they get out of college . There ’ s so many people that are twenty-two years old and don ’ t have a job . Colleges have not worried at all about that . And they should . So part of the argument out there is vocational stuff versus liberal arts . I think that is not the right argument . It ’ s both . You ’ ve got to
32 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2024