A bar graph made of colored pencils shows fluctuations but a general uptrend
Education Figures
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Two weeks ago we presented health and safety data from Rhode Island KIDS COUNT’s 2023 Snapshot for Providence. This week we’re sharing data on education.  Our city’s future depends, in many ways, on the school system and the options available for our kids- take a [...]

09
Oct
Photo courtesy of KIDS COUNT RI
How Are Our Children Doing?
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Every year, the analysts at Rhode Island KIDS COUNT painstakingly search out and compile data about our state’s children from dozens of government agencies and breaks it all down by community, race, age and gender to help policy makers identify where children need the most [...]

25
Sep
Providence Teachers Contract Ends August 31- What’s Next?
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Whether defended or despised, public school teacher contracts are critical documents that set out what we expect from our teachers and what they can expect from us as their employers. Yet, the public and its elected representatives have almost no information about or influence over [...]

21
Aug
RI KIDS Count Executive Director Paige Clausius-Parks explains school funding to parents and students at CCRI on May 11.
“Our education just isn’t important enough.” School Budget Measures the City’s Commitment to Children
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One after another, Providence Schools students and parents stepped up to the mic at the City Council on June 11 to demand that the city increase its appropriation to public schools by $20 million in the coming school year. Their passion and anger at the [...]

19
Jun
Our City’s Food System
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The commercial economy provides most of the food we need through a complex system of meal providers and grocery stores backed up by a behind-the-scenes economy of food producers, processors and distributors. However, many people simply cannot meet their full food needs within the commercial [...]

29
May
Are Providence Schools Better Off After Five Years of State Management?
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On November 1, 2019, RI Department of Education (RIDE) used the authority granted in the 2006 Crowley Act, to take sole control over the Providence Public School Department (PPSD) and its 41 schools. Today, five eventful years later, can we say that our schools are [...]

08
May
Knight Memorial Library in Elmwood (vintage postcard)
Community Libraries of Providence
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In honor of  National  Library Week (April 7-13), we’re featuring information from the Community Libraries of Providence (CLP). CLP is the private nonprofit that operates the  neighborhood-based libraries closest to where most of us live. (The big downtown library is run by the separate Providence [...]

10
Apr
Providence Fire Department – Ready for Anything
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Our Fire Department was created in 1854, making it the second-oldest continuous professional fire department in the US. (Cincinnati set up a fully paid fire service in 1853.) Our Fire Department’s motto is “Omnia Paratus,” or “Ready for Anything”.  From dumpster fires and false alarms [...]

03
Apr
Photo courtesy of Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island
Where We Come From
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We love to complain about how hard it is to live in Providence, yet our city continues to attract newcomers from around the US and abroad. New residents bring new ideas, new, foods, music and energy with them and have saved Providence and Rhode Island [...]

27
Mar
Our Water
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Cities need more water than they can find within their own borders. In 1871, Providence’s first municipal water system brought unfiltered water from the Pawtuxet River in Cranston to the city.  Later the city added sand filtering and elevated storage reservoirs at the current sites [...]

20
Mar