A General Assembly bill (S0863) enacted into law in 2019 empowered the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) to develop curricula for various subjects that can be mandated to every school district in the state … a top-down, one-size-fits-all, centrally-planned power that removed authority from local school districts and, instead, granted near-absolute power to RIDE to dictate what is taught to our children.

Since then, RIDE and its Commissioner, Angelica Infante-Green, have proven to be wholly ineffective, irresponsible, and unworthy of the authority granted to it by state lawmakers. RIDE has continually sought to infuse controversial political theories into K-12 curricula … and to infringe on parental rights and on the authority of locally-elected school committee members.

For the many reasons cited below, I am petitioning lawmakers to reverse course and to support legislation – House bill H5498 and Senate bill S0187 – to REPEAL that 2019 law, which would return curricula decisions to local school committees, local school officials, and local parents.

• Since Commissioner Infante-Green assumed control, RIDE’s controversial policies have led to failing and falling student achievement across the state, all while per-pupil costs have soared
• RIDE’s takeover of the Providence and Central Falls school systems has not improved student achievement outcomes
• In a recent report, RIDE’s “social studies standards” were criticized as teaching radical activism instead of America’s true birthright of liberty
• RIDE’s recommended “sex ed” curricula was recently exposed as not only being age-inappropriate but immoral, perverted, and an infringement on parental discretion
• RIDE is openly planning to tear-apart families, by converting school buildings into 24-hour service centers for students they successfully “emancipate” from their own parents

By signing this petition, I also authorize an email to be automatically generated on my behalf and sent to legislative and educational officials in our state.