R.I. General Treasurer Seth Magaziner Visits EPHS

The state's General Treasurer was a guest of the EPHS Young Democrats club Thursday after school. Magaziner greeted a large group of the school's Young Democrats. Gregg Amore (D-Dist. 65, East Providence), a history teacher at East Providence High School, introduced Magaziner to the students. "Mr. Treasurer, with full disclosure, I have to tell you that we have some members of our school's Young Republicans here also," as the group chuckled. This was at least the 10 statewide elected official that the Young Democrats have invited to the school for a Q & A session.

"I want to thank Representative Amore for doing a great job in the state house and for being a great teacher here at EP," said Magaziner. "I was a teacher years ago. I taught in Louisiana after (Hurricane) Catrina and I know how hard teachers work," he told the students.

Magaziner described his background, being from Bristol, RI and how he got interested in politics. "I was involved with an investment firm that was socially based. We would help people according to their interests, like environmental or religious, etc. I worked on Rhode Island's marriage equality law and these things motivated me politically," he said.

Magaziner explained the difficulty in maintaining the state's pension system and discussed his office's attempts to bolster college bound funds, savings plans and victim's compensation funding.

Magaziner also talked about the state infrastructure bank which was passed by the General Assembly in order to help cities and towns repair school buildings and other aging infrastructure needs. "Yes. we're very interested in that, especially this week with our heating problems her at EPHS," chimed in Amore as heads nodded and Supt. Crowley smiled.

Students asked a myriad of questions from pension funding to college loans and other issues of the day. "I believe that the Democrats better meet the needs of people who need help the most," said Magaziner. "People are struggling and we must be there to help when possible."

Students asked about standardized testing requirements and the Treasurer said he had mixed feelings. "I understand the need for testing to assess what students know, but I am wary of over-testing," he added.

When asked what his political plans were for the future, Magaziner said he was content to complete two 4 year terms as treasurer. "That's the term limit and I would like to complete that."

"Yes, we would like to see our new principal (Shani Wallace) and new Superintendent (Kathryn Crowley) to both get two 4 year terms with us," laughed Amore to the wide smiles of Wallace and Crowley.

"I hope that we can work on recruiting new teachers at the colleges," Magaziner said. "I don't see that enough at our colleges and we need teachers."

At the end of the program Magaziner was presented with a Townie football sweatshirt. "How was your team this year," the Treasurer asked? "We were the best public school team in the state," he said referring to the school's playoff run. "If it wasn't for some injuries we would have won the superbowl," proclaimed Amore.