With Raimondo Likely Headed to Washington, Dan McKee Is On Deck to Take the Reins

In a week of nonstop news, we just learned that Joe Biden has tapped Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo to become his Secretary of Commerce. If she accepts and goes to Washington, which I suspect she will, Lieutenant Governor Dan McKee, a Democrat like his predecessor, will take the reins of my state’s executive branch.

I have only ever campaigned for a grand total of two Rhode Island elected officials in the 15 years that I have lived here—one is my current town mayor and the other is Dan McKee. I’ve known him, and his wonderful wife Sue, for over ten years and we have bonded over our belief that the schools in our state are not good enough and that education can and must improve.

Dan McKee is passionate about education and knows that it is the difference maker when it comes to opening the door of opportunity. He saw it as an AAU basketball coach, traveling up and down the east coast with boys whose future opportunities were wildly disparate for one reason—their schooling experiences. They worked hard together on the court and got along like family. But despite the basketball talent they shared, there was little in common they shared when it came to their post high school plans. Some had attended good schools and were supported in the process of applying to college. Others were years behind academically and lacked even the most basic understanding of what college was, let alone how to apply. What he saw up close was the injustice of an education system that chains children and families to their zip code and creates educational haves and have-nots. 

Fifteen years ago, as mayor of my town, he founded the Office of Children, Youth and Learning or OCYL. This municipal office was born out of McKee’s fervent belief that we do children a massive disservice when we limit their learning to the confines of the school day. He had a vision of keeping children learning when they weren’t in school, regardless of their family income. I personally took advantage of this program when my oldest son was in kindergarten. At the time, our town only had a half day program so I signed him up for a literacy class that met twice a week in the morning. I paid full freight, which was extremely reasonable, but they charged on a sliding scale and children who qualified for free and reduced lunch got to attend for free. OCYL proved to be a great alternative option for parents who did not have their children enrolled in a typical (and often high cost) pre-school. But McKee’s vision was not just for young children—older kids take art, music, chess, math and SAT prep. 

McKee has long believed that we should be asking how we can use the tools that already exist, like mayors’ offices, to increase learning opportunities for kids. He obviously had no way of knowing that fifteen years later, K12 education in America would be completely disrupted by a pandemic but it makes sense for a concept like the OCYL to become part of a post-covid strategy as we begin the very hard work of getting students back on track and mitigating learning loss. Out-of-school learning has an important role to play and a proven blueprint for it already exists.

Dan McKee was a proponent of the importance of “diversity, equity and inclusion” (or DEI) long before it became the hot bandwagon that everyone had decided to jump aboard. Largely informed by his experience as a basketball coach, McKee set out to open a school that would provide an opportunity for children to learn across lines of difference—those lines were race, income and zip code. He wanted to build a school from scratch and the end result, with help from countless people, became Blackstone Valley Prep (BVP), a school that would serve two urban and two suburban districts. This new charter school would level the field of opportunity so that zip code school assignment would not be an impediment to getting to and through college. 

I was blessed for my own children to attend BVP through 5th grade—and I worked part time at the school for a bit as well. I can say, without hesitation, that the school has changed the trajectory of so many lives and given families hope of a future that they had only imagined before. McKee knew that if his basketball players had been able to attend school together, the lives of those who needed and deserved a different ending would have gotten one.

In his role as lieutenant governor, McKee has been relentlessly focused on small business. And it makes sense. He was a small businessman and a mayor. He has an appreciation for how government can help and how it can also totally miss the mark. 

But perhaps the best window into Dan McKee is the love and devotion he feels for his 92-year-old mom, Willa (aka Gramma McKee.) She is so very proud of him—and she has told me that herself on more than one occasion. If you’ve ever run into Dan at his polling place on election day, she’s right there with him. And if you’ve ever celebrated a McKee campaign victory (or loss), she’s there by his side. 

I know Dan McKee, personally. He is an authentic person without a shred of pretentiousness. He is honest about results and what it takes to improve them. And he believes in fairness and will buck the status quo if it means helping those that the system relentlessly leaves behind. 

Our state will be in steady hands with him at the helm.