Center Publishes New Report: “Government’s Assault On RI Families”

Rhode Island families are disillusioned … and under assault from their own government:

• Economically – inflation & high taxes are robbing family budgets
• Educationally – politicized curricula are failing our children
• Culturally – controversial & divisive theories are turning our society upside down
• Religiously – intolerance for God, Christians, and Jews is fueling hate and restricting religious freedom
• Emotionally – the bombardment of age-inappropriate content is leading to mental health issues among our youth
• Physically – crime, drugs, woke transgender policies, and the erosion of self-defense rights put family members at risk of  bodily harm
• Patriotically – animosity towards America and her founding fathers, as pushed by the Left, is creating enemies within

The preservation and advancement of the well-being of families and children should be the foremost goal of our society and government. Every resident of Rhode Island aspires to live in a peaceful and prosperous society, and every family wishes for a bright future for their children.

Yet, here in our state, families are being ripped apart by a radical agenda that undermines traditional family values and seeks to transition children into political pawns.

Centuries of empirical evidence and common sense have shown that a stable and nurturing family environment is the best path to a productive future. The “success sequence”, supported by extensive research, is that path, which consists of three main pillars: 1) completing a quality education and earning at least a high school diploma; 2) securing full-time employment; and 3) marrying before having children. Following these steps alone can provide young adults with more than a 97% chance of avoiding poverty.

However, virtually all significant societal and economic issues we encounter today can be attributed to the breakdown of the traditional family structure and its security, which in turn leads to the collapse of faith.

Alarmingly, between 2018 and 2022, 32 percent of RI infants were born to a mother with less than a high school diploma, while 34 percent of fathers had less than a high school diploma. These troubling trends can be largely attributed to destructive public policies in our state that erode one or more of these pillars, encroach upon our freedoms, and impose more politicized government control over our lives. For instance, as we describe below, many of our state’s public assistance programs actually create a “marriage penalty” for couples who want to tie the knot.

Unfairly, for those of you who do study, obtain a good job, and get married … all too often your hard-earned tax dollars are redistributed to others who weren’t responsible enough to follow this path!

These misguided policies often stem from corruption, where government bureaucrats prioritize serving insider special interest groups and agendas – especially when under public pressure from progressive activists, the media, and academia – which inevitably results in negative consequences for families and taxpayers.

The Washington Bridge debacle exemplifies the potential consequences of a state government’s corrupt dealings with one special interest group – public and private sector unions – resulting in significant incompetence and waste as well as danger for all of us. The Rhode Island Department of Transportation was aware of the bridge’s structural issues since 2012, but for over a decade, they concealed the report and failed to take action to protect the safety of motorists. Rather than spending $8 million on repairs at that time, unionized construction firms now stand to gain as much as $300 million of taxpayer money to reconstruct the entire bridge. This raises the question we must often ask: who wins and who loses?

Low-income families, with under-educated children, have been voting for liberal-left candidates for decades … and they’re still poor, with un-educated kids!

Corrupt Identity Politics. In a disturbingly large number of instances, important public policy issues are decided upon based on false narratives manufactured and advanced by self-serving special-interest groups … often inventing new categories of victims who ostensibly suffer from some contrived or  fake injustice. These “identity politics” narratives are then perpetrated by the compliant local media, academia, and liberal advocacy groups … then, finally, legislative and executive actions are enacted to address these pretend “social inequities”, resulting in benefits for the special interest few at the expense of the well-being of the many Ocean State families.

The public has lost complete faith in our government, which increasingly is ruled by politicians who are beholden to these obviously false narratives … and voters will put their support behind candidates who offer a change … a realistic, taxpayer-centric approach.

The gross corruption of governmental officials – beholden to these false narratives and the extremists who support them; elected and and appointed officials who oversee policies in the economy, education, housing, and the environment as well as of compliant judges in the courts – is robbing our children of their rightful opportunity for a bright and prosperous future in our Ocean State … all so that crony insiders will benefit instead.

Who wins and who loses?

In short, RI public policy has become an “assault” on Ocean State families … in favor of selfish and corrupt insider cronies and their false narratives.

The Left’s War on Women

In Washington, DC, the Biden Administration’s 2024 reckless reforms to Title IX, which will put the safety of boys and girls at risk, seeks to reshape and dismantle the role of families in the raising and education of their children, by inventing and mandating a new set of rights for gender-denying students, which have no constitutional basis.

In response, Americans are revolting and many state superintendents across America have issued directives NOT TO COMPLY with these dangerous new woke rules.

Back here in Rhode Island, and as detailed throughout this post, families are under further assault from our own state government and the progressive Left, beginning with RI’s Education Commissioner, Angelica Infante-Green, who refuses to change RIDE’s anti-family guidance on school transgender policies.

The critical question is whether or not state lawmakers will “wake up” to the harsh realities of the consequences of the Left’s misguided policies.

While not everyone can be raised in a stable family environment, and while we have a responsibility to support citizens in our state who may be in real need, elected officials should continually strive to adopt public polices that reward marriage, promote a thriving economy with a low cost of living and free-market business climate, and provide a meaningful public educational system that respects parental rights.

The Proof – The Great Ocean State Exodus

No other metric best illustrates the oppressive nature of RI’s failed public polices than the well-documented pattern of graduates, retirees, middle- and upper-income families, and high-net-worth individuals fleeing our state … reducing our state’s tax base and limiting the amount of capital available to invest in starting or expanding a business, or to donate to charitable organizations.

These productive citizens are being replaced, in large part, by undocumented immigrants who often rely on public assistance – tax dollar eaters instead of tax dollar producers.

Our Ocean State’s population has stagnated in recent decades and has not kept pace with population growth in other states. As such, most experts agree that Rhode Island will lose one of its two prized House of Representative seats in the US Congress after the 2030 Census.

Here’s how our own government has become the enemy of RI families:

ECONOMICALLY

On the economic front, family budgets are stressed to the breaking point. Because of oppressive regulations, not only is our state one of the worst states in which to start a business and create jobs, but Rhode Island suffers from one of the highest costs of living in America due to high taxes and inflation-causing regulatory and spending policies that reduce supplies and raise demand. Our Ocean State is also one of the most expensive states for seniors to retire.

The average 2-parent Rhode Island family will pay over $1,369,000 in taxes throughout their lifetime … over 30% higher than the US average!

Also, family savings have completely reversed (-72% drop) under the Biden’s control over the national economy as compared with Trump’s (+129% rise).

The “tax the rich” and spend mentality of the progressive-left actually makes worse the problem of wealth inequality by robbing low income families of opportunities for upward mobility; instead of encouraging them to become dependent on government assistance.

When income or wealth is over-taxed at the individual or corporate level, there is less incentive to invest cash (capital) to hire and pay workers or to start or expand a businesses, while at the same time driving high-income investors out of Rhode Island and to other, less oppressive, states.

These kind of natural and human reactions are why increased taxation often leads to decreased revenues to the government.

Such counter-productive policies that borrow opportunity from future generations, in order to satisfy the demands of corrupt insiders, inevitably lead to many negative and unintended economic consequences for families:

• Fewer good paying jobs will be available for many Rhode Islanders as they are increasingly going to illegal immigrants welcomed into our state by Rhode Island’s and Providence’s “sanctuary state” and “sanctuary city” policies.
  • Small businesses, the main source of jobs in our state, are being crowded out by high local inflation and oppressive regulations imposed by progressive lawmakers that make it costly to produce goods or provide services
  • Also, RI’s high and ever-increasing minimum wage mandates, means employers will hire fewer workers and will cut back on the hours of part-time or hourly workers.
  • SOLUTION: Reform RI’s minimum wage laws to match the federal minimum wage minimums. This will increase job availability and allow good-performing workers to quickly earn higher wages from employers who will want to keep them.
• Reductions in Public Assistance for low-middle income families are at threat because of the Left’s misguided polices. First, the influx of illegal immigrants means more public funds are being diverted away from long-time Rhode Island resident families. Second, our high tax and cost-of-living environment means thousands of people are leaving our state every year, which will lead to a loss of one of our two prized House of Representative seats in the US Congress … resulting in lower levels of federal aid for Rhode Island. Who wins and who loses?

EDUCATIONALLY

Most disturbing of all, is that the Left and our government is now focusing its assault on families with a targeted war on our children.

The RI Department of Education is a failed institution. RIDE is not preparing our children for a prosperous future and for life informed citizens … and they are doing so on purpose!

Ocean State families are fed up and have lost trust in a failing government-run public school system that is increasingly controlled by corrupt teacher unions and radical left ideologues. Many families are seeking to escape the system and are desperate in seeking alternative options.

Both major teacher unions in RI have persistently stood in the way of significant educational reform by threatening to use their massive political war chest to oust lawmakers who do not support the agenda of union bosses. In recent years, both the AFT and the NEA rejected calls to focus more on objective subjects like math, science, and English … and instead make the politically subjective issue of “social justice” a priority in K-12 schools. Who wins and who loses?

Teacher unions, with their long-time special-interest and insider crony status, have more recently devolved into just another radical-left activist group that use alleged concern for students to attain power and influence. The reality, however, is while they care about teachers, they harm students far more than they help them. 

One example is teachers unions’ opposition to school choice. Those who actually care about students support the right of parents to choose their children’s schools—just as many teachers do when they send their own children to schools of their choice.

A second example is teachers unions’ making it nearly impossible to fire incompetent teachers.

A third example was teachers unions’ demands that schools lock down for nearly two years during the COVID-19 era. The unions did so despite there being no scientific evidence in support of school lockdowns and despite ample warnings that many children would suffer intellectually, scholastically, emotionally, and psychologically.

Moreover, wrote John H. Cochrane of the Hoover Institution in The Wall Street Journal, “When schools went remote, parents found out what was actually going on inside the classrooms. Teachers were coaching students to hate themselves, their country and their religious traditions, and sexualizing young children.”

The last point brings us to a fourth example: Teachers rob young students of their sexual innocence with premature talk of, and books that deal with, overt sexual activity, and the infamous use of drag queens to perform in front of children as young as 6 years old.

Just how left-wing teachers organizations are was made clear by the sympathetic left-wing magazine The Nation in January:

A rank-and-file campaign inside the National Education Association is demanding the president stop ‘sending military funding, equipment, and intelligence to Israel.’ … But the rank-and-file campaign goes beyond [that]. … Members want the [National Education Association] to revoke its endorsement of Joe Biden for the 2024 presidential race until the president … stops ‘sending military funding, equipment, and intelligence to Israel.’

That was only two months after Oct. 7.

Save our kids from the woke Left

Sadly, many believe that we must save our kids from RIDE – the RI Department of Education. In fact a petition drive calling for the resignation of commissioner Angelic Infante-Green has garnered hundreds of signatures and scathing comments.

The lack of educational achievement among students, combined with the cultural attack on children and parents … is even more troubling.

In 2019 the RI General Assembly granted RIDE with the authority to develop statewide curricula standards for core subjects … however, since then, under the direction of Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green, RIDE has proven to be wholly irresponsible and unworthy of such authority.

Instead of pursuing a traditional “content-based” curricula strategy, an objective method of teaching factual material, RIDE has adopted a more subjective and controversial approach, often referred to as “concept-based” pedagogy. In Rhode Island’s case, the Socialist worldview of Infante-Green and her “America as oppressors” point-of-view is persistently woven through almost all RIDE-recommended instructional content.

• SOLUTION: Repeal the 2019 statue that empowered RIDE with curricula authority and return related decisions to locally-elected school committee officials, as Senate bill S2518 attempted to achieve in 2024.

The Marxification of Education in RI: On RIDE’s own website, the prominent Marxist Paulo Freire is prominently quoted. Freire’s “critical pedagogy,” whose theoretical roots are derived directly from Marxism, seeks to indoctrinate students to become critical agents of social change.

RIDE has failed in its mission to prepare children for college and life, while also leading the way in advancing a woke, social justice agenda that has divided local communities.

Education or Indoctrination?