Steph Machado of The Boston Globe joined “Behind the Story” this week to discuss her reporting on the undercounting of school days in Pawtucket, which will extend the school year and cut into families’ summer break.
Steph Machado broke the news that the school district, for an unknown number of years, had been letting students leave school five minutes early. The practice has now come back to haunt the district, with the state’s education department requiring Pawtucket to make up the lost instructional time.
The lost time comes on top of four snow days and delayed starts during the winter, which the Rhode Island Department of Education is also requiring the district to make up. Machado said it all adds up to five or six days, meaning the school year will extend into late June.
“I heard from a lot of parents that this was the first time they were hearing about this,” Machado said of the reaction to her story. “It’s really short notice to find out that you have almost an extra week of school.”
Machado also discussed her coverage of an ongoing federal fight over access to records involving transgender children and teenagers. The court battle stems from the U.S. Department of Justice asking a Texas judge to order the release of medical records for underage patients who received gender-affirming care at Rhode Island Hospital.
Machado said Rhode Island Hospital has agreed to provide some anonymized records, but the legal battle is far from over, with dueling appeals underway in Rhode Island and Texas.
“I don’t know if this will end up at the Supreme Court, but it certainly seems like something that could, based on how many different jurisdictions are now involved,” Machado said.
Later in the show, 12 News Politics Editor Ted Nesi joined the program to discuss the latest political poll released by Emerson College Polling and 12 News.
Nesi discussed the poll’s 20-point lead for challenger Helena Foulkes over incumbent Gov. Dan McKee in the Democratic primary, along with the wide-open race for attorney general.
Nesi also highlighted polling that showed Rhode Islanders across voter groups have little confidence in the Rhode Island Department of Transportation’s ability to maintain the state’s roads and bridges.
“Seventy-seven percent of Rhode Island voters say they are not confident in RIDOT to properly manage the state’s roads and bridges,” Nesi said. “Hard not to connect that back to the governor’s struggles in the wake of the Washington Bridge and his decision to stand by RIDOT leadership, notably Peter Alviti, rather than make a change.”
The poll results were discussed in place of the “stories we wish we wrote.”