Center’s Family Prosperity Forum Suggests Stark Contrast to Governor’s State of the State Message; Statement on Free Tuition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

January 18, 2017

Pro-Family, Pro-Business Focus Recommended vs Governor’s Centrally-planned Mandate & Corporate Subsidy Approach
Left and Right Come Together to Support Justice Reinvestment Initiative

Center Proposes Alternative to Free Tuition Plan

Providence, RI — The overwhelming sentiment from the local and national policy experts, from both the left and right, who participated in Tuesday’s Family Prosperity Leadership Forum at Bryant University was that Rhode Island families should be the focus of public policy; in stark contrast to the corporate tax-credit policies that have been the center-piece of the Raimondo administration’s economic development agenda.

There was apparent unanimity in the belief that the state’s current corporate welfare strategy would not provide any relief to most distressed families and small businesses.

“When considering our Ocean State’s 48th ranking in overall family prosperity and 50th business climate ranking, it was clear to all attendees that a new policy direction is required,” said Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center. “Instead of greater tax burdens on families and increased mandates on small businesses, broad-based relief that opens the door for more and better businesses to create more and better jobs is what we need if we want a better quality of life for Rhode Island families.”

The forum, sponsored by the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity and the American Conservative Union Foundation, and hosted by the Hassenfeld Institutue for Public Leadership, attracted almost 100 civic and political leaders from across the state and nation.

The forum featured a salient moment, when the Center, along with civil rights and political leaders from the left and right, stood together to support the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), which would would modernize the state’s over-burdened probation system. The proposed JRI legislation could help break the cycle of incarceration, which makes it difficult for ex-offenders to live a productive life for themselves and their families. Senate Judiciary Chairman Michael McCaffrey spoke words of praise for those on all sides of the philosophical spectrum who are supporting this vital initiative.

Free Tuition Alternative: Unrelated to the forum, and with regard to the Governor’s proposed “free tuition” plan, the Center suggests that instead of raising $30-40 million in new revenues to pay for expanded K-14 government funded education, that the state should focus on getting K-12 education right by re-purposing $30-$40 million in existing state education funds to empower families with expanded school choices via Educational Scholarship Accounts, as the Center has proposed for the past two years.

About the Family Prosperity Index: In December, along with its national partner, The American Conservative Union Foundation, the Center unveiled an in-depth analysis of factors contributing to the Ocean State’s unacceptable ranking on the Family Prosperity Index (FPI). The Rhode Island Family Prosperity report highlights Rhode Island’s poor scores on a number of factors, including family self-sufficiency, family structure, fertility, and illicit drug use, compounded by its significant out-migration rate, as the determinant factors in the state’s overall FPI rank of 48th in the nation.

The FPI provides the credible data that state policymakers, civic and religious leaders, think tanks and activists need in order to develop and advocate effectively for policies that improve the prosperity of families and the communities where they live.