— Charges of racism and cyber-bullying erupted over the weekend in a Twitter fight between two Rhode Island lawmakers, one of them a black female Democrat and the other a white male Republican.

The issue: the state of the education system in Rhode Island, as dismal student test scores have prompted the Democratic leaders of both the House and the Senate to elevate “school reform” to priority status in the 2019 legislative session.

It began with a series of tweets by Rep. Marcia Ranglin-Vassell early Saturday morning, including this one: “Only when we recognize that our students are more than test scores, more than data, and only when we begin to value their teachers will we begin to see real and sustained improvements in education#ITeach.”