On June 18, 2026, Rhode Island Gov. Daniel McKee (D) signed identical bills (S 2787 and H7415) to prohibit the state's Council on Elementary and Secondary Education from approving the creation or expansion of any district charter schools through the 2028-2029 school year. The bill also reduced the allowed number of charter schools in the state from 35 to 28, and will prevent some previously approved charter schools from opening.
Rhode Island state law provides for three types of charter schools: district charter schools, independent charter schools, and mayoral academies. The moratorium applies to all three types of charter schools.
The Rhode Island Senate passed S 2787 31-6 with one senator not voting on June 4, 2026. All supporters of the bill were Democrats, though two Democrats joined four Republicans to oppose it.
The Rhode Island House of Representatives passed H 7145 60-12 with three representatives not voting on June 10, 2026. Fifty-four Democrats, five Republicans, and one Independent supported the bill, while seven Democrats and five Republicans opposed it. The three nonvoting representatives were Democrats. The Rhode Island Senate passed H 7145 on June 11 by the same margin as S 2787.
Debates about the bill
Around 9.5% of Rhode Island's students attend charter schools. When students transfer from traditional public schools to charter schools, their per-pupil local and state funding allocations are also transferred.
State Representative and House Education Committee Chair Joseph McNamara (D) supported the bill, saying that the state's education funding formula was not adequately funding public education, and that charter schools were taking too much money from traditional public schools.
McNamara said, "We desperately need a more equitable formula. This would give us time, because we cannot continue to develop, nor can we afford, to have two parallel school systems in the state…It’s financially impossible.”
Kelsey Bala, Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Senior Policy Associate, opposed the bill. She said that the bill would revoke the recent approval of expanded and newly established charters.
Bala said, "We know that many have concerns about how charter schools are funded, particularly how they receive funding from the state’s funding formula and how local aid is disbursed to charter schools. We agree that this is a critical issue that needs discussion and action; however, we do not agree that students and families that are seeking school options should be denied opportunities to a high-quality public charter school while we work to improve the funding formula and investment strategy."
Zooming out
Rhode Island has 66 school districts, at least 22 of which are charters. In the 2024-2025 school year, 135,978 students attended public (including charter) schools. Rhode Island has a per-pupil expenditure of $23,571. The District of Columbia (D.C.) spent the most per student at $31,629 (FY 2023), and Idaho spent the least at $10,247.
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Ballotpedia maintains research on school board authority and responsibilities in all 50 states, including on school board authority over charter school establishment. Each article contains an investigation into the authority of and constraints on school board policy-making power concerning the following specific topics for a given state:
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