- Ted, there was recently a dispute playing out in court between the Rhode Island Department of Education and the Mayor of Providence over funding for the city schools.

In the end, they reached a settlement, but there really was no clear winner.

- No, and I spoke to Providence Mayor, Brett Smiley, on the day the numbers came out and he said that neither side got everything they wanted and that's usually the sign of a decent resolution to this kind of dispute, but I do think there will be some hard feelings around how all this played out, Michelle.

The Mayor called it a bruising fight, a bruising argument, that was his word that he used, so I think there's some scars left, yeah.

- As part of the settlement, Providence has to pay, this year, $15 million for school funding.

In addition to that, in subsequent years, the city will also have to pay more money for education.

Now we heard from the State Education Commissioner, Angelica Infante Green, and Mayor Smiley the day that the details of this settlement were released.

Let's take a listen.

- We have reached an agreement that will provide additional dollars for funding for students.

The mutual agreement will allow PPSD to avoid making further cuts to important student services and programs this year.

- I want the best for these students.

It's water under the bridge at this point.

The agreement is signed and we're moving forward.

I still don't think a mid-year settlement like this is the right way to go about it, but it's done and the most important thing is now that we have certainty and predictability going forward.

- And as we've talked about before, it's not as if Providence has a lot of financial flexibility to just say, "Here is $15 million to pay for our schools."

- No, I mean, Providence, people have to remember, has the lowest rainy day fund among any city and town in Rhode Island.

It's a pretty financially-strapped city and you see that in how the Mayor is trying to fund this, Michelle.

He's put a hiring freeze in place.

He's seeking pilot money from the nonprofits or using money he has from them.

They're repurposing American Rescue Plan Act, COVID relief dollars.

They're even taking $5 million that had been set aside for potential legal settlements and giving that to the schools and they'll figure out how to fund the settlements later if those come to fruition.

So, you know, it's kind of a looking under the couch cushions way of funding this school money and then of course, for residents, they're gonna be asked to pay more in taxes.

The Mayor's already signaling, he's going to ask the General Assembly for permission, in the new session, to go over the 4% annual cap on tax hikes because he says he needs more than that to cover the school funding and the rest of the city budget.

- For me, the big question is what does this additional funding mean for students in Providence, a city that has been under state takeover now for more than five years?

- Yeah, and the numbers are still pretty grim in Providence, Michelle, even after the state takeover and of course in the wake of the pandemic.

Only about 15% of Providence students are currently reading at grade level or proficient in math and the city's already spending about $27,000 a year per student, so that's one thing you haven't heard from a lot of people here, that this money's going to be a game changer for the city schools.

- Meanwhile, the debate continues over when the state should hand back control of the schools to the city, so we'll wait and see when that happens.

Okay, let's turn to a story that we've been talking about a lot this year, which is the Washington Bridge.

It's hard to believe that we are approaching the one year mark of when the westbound side of the bridge was abruptly shut down and I think most people are surprised that we are at this moment and not much has changed in a year.

- Yes, I mean people have to remember, I'm sure they do that when this bridge closed on December 11th last year, we were told it would be reopened in about three months.

Certainly no one was signaling this bridge was a goner and now we've reached the point where the state's saying it's going to take over 18 months just to give an estimate of when the new bridge will be built and how much it's going to cost, so the goalposts have moved enormously over that period of time.

- So it's a wait and see just for information, not for results.

- Yes, and you know, we have the anniversary now and I think people are going to see some momentum now.

You're seeing that we're going to have announcements about a short list of companies that wanna build the new bridge and that process, I think, is going to give people a little more hope, hopefully.

- Yeah, well, let's talk about that.

There's some encouraging news, as you mentioned.

The state plans to release soon the names of the two finalists, the two finalist companies, who want to build the westbound side of the bridge, which is encouraging.

- Yes, and they've asked for qualifications.

People remember the first bidding process failed over the summer.

They're going with a whole different way of doing this now.

They've asked for qualifications for various companies.

Now they're being interviewed.

We expect on December 11th, the anniversary, an announcement of the two companies that'll move forward and then those two finalist companies are going to help put the request for proposals together and give their estimates of cost and timing, but again, Michelle, the state has said they don't expect to announce which company will build the new bridge, how much it'll cost, when it'll be done, until next July.

- Meanwhile, drivers like you who go over that bridge regularly- - [Ted] Come to you.

- Have to be frustrated, right?

I mean, you don't have that timeline yet and also we don't know how much this will cost.

- Yes, and so I think that's why people, you know, the state officials still won't say that the 2026 completion of the bridge is off the table, but there's a lot of skepticism that can happen now.

- It may be unlikely, but we'll wait and see.

- Exactly.

- Thank you, Ted.

- Great to be here.