During this time, Cabrera and her son have been taking part in an orientation process to officially join Puerto Rico’s first charter school on Monday.
Cabrera’s child is one of the 58 students joining Proyecto Vimenti, a kindergarten to first-grade school run by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico.
“For me, this is a unique opportunity,” said Cabrera, a single mother who moved to the housing complex two years ago after losing her home of 13 years in the island’s economic crisis. “It was like God sent this [opportunity] to me.”
Vimenti is the only charter school being put in place this semester as part of the island’s education reform law signed by Gov. Ricardo Rosselló in March. It was the first time Puerto Rico created a legal pathway to establish charter schools on the island.
According to Eduardo Carrera, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico, the nonprofit had been developing Proyecto Vimenti for two years. But with the education reform law in place, the nonprofit saw an opportunity to bring the project to life.
“We are not creating a school to address the education reform [law]. This [project] is an attempt to break the generational cycle of poverty,” said Carrera in Spanish during a recent press conference.
Unlike the mainland U.S., the island's public education system mainly serves low-income communities; the majority of middle-income and upper-income families use parochial or private schools. On average, 70 to 80 percent of the student population at any given public school in the island live below the poverty line, according to numbers from the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics (PRIS).
Students under the poverty line are almost three times more likely to drop out of school than a student living in a household above the poverty line.
Vimenti is the first of three schools the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico hopes to establish in the island. They modeled the school’s curriculum after that of St. John’s School, one of the island's most prestigious private schools. They also added their already-established after school program to Vimenti’s curriculum.
“We have a great project to start with the charter school model, which will be in the hands of a highly reputable entity at an international level that has demonstrated a wide administrative capacity,” said Puerto Rico’s education secretary, Julia Keleher, in a press release.
CONTROVERSIES OVER EDUCATION REFORM AND CHARTER SCHOOLS
As part of the island's education reform process, officials closed over 250 public schools and implemented new online systems to manage teachers’ placements and student enrollments. All of these took place during the past months as families grappled with the ripple effects of devastating Hurricane Maria.
Now, officials are moving forward with a plan to open several charter schools — a decision that has generated debate and discussion.
Charter schools receive public and private funds in order to operate, and their financial and operational models have been the center of many heated debates for decades. People who favor the model see charters as public schools because enrollment is open to all students and there is no tuition. Critics argue that charter schools inject public funds into the private sector, raising concerns over public accountability and potential labor issues.
Students and schools struggle to rebound after hurricanes
MAY.14.201802:14
For decades, one of the more vocal critics of charter schools in the island has been the Puerto Rico Teachers Association, known by their Spanish acronym AMPR. The group warns against diverting funds from public schools; the island's Department of Education is grappling with a $300 million shortfall.
The Boys and Girls Club of Puerto Rico has opened the island's first charter school in Vimenti.
by Nicole Acevedo
“We are not creating a school," said Eduardo Carrera of Puerto Rico's Boys & Girls Clubs. “This is an attempt to break the generational cycle of poverty."
Puerto Rico opens first charter school amid controversies
