VIDEO: Commissioner Infante-Green Moves to Block Student & Parent Involvement in Providence Takeover

VIDEO: Commissioner Infante-Green Moves to Block Student & Parent Involvement in Providence Takeover

In a hearing on Friday conducted by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) on a petition by a group of students and parents who are seeking to participate in the State’s takeover of the Providence Schools -- which is still continuing at this article's publication -- Rhode Island's new Education Commissioner hired high priced lawyers to block the motion to intervene.

Last week, a group of high school students and Providence parents on behalf of their children filed a motion with RIDE demanding that a clear plan for the district be shared with the public before it is implemented. Parents and students were joined by representatives of several organizations that serve Providence youth, including Youth in Action (YIA), Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM), Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE), and Providence Student Union (PSU).

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The group, represented by the Rhode Island Center for Justice, is asking the Commissioner of Education to ensure that there is a formal role for parents and students to preview and weigh in on the plan for improving the city's schools, the leaders who will implement it, and the goals, progress, and criteria for success for the plan.

The RIDE argument in opposition seems to perpetuate the system's effort to block parental involvement.

The Johns Hopkins report found, “Parents are marginalized and demoralized. In a system that is majority Latino, we expected to encounter multiple initiatives and programs that connected parents to the schools their children attend. That was simply not the case. The lack of parent input was striking on its own, but the widespread acceptance of this marginalization was of particular note.”

RIDE’s Argument

Attorney Marc DeSisto who was hired by RIDE to fight the motion to intervene, in his written argument cites a range of Rhode Island court case writes, “However, and importantly, mere ‘interest in a problem,’ no matter how longstanding the interest and no matter how qualified the organization is in evaluating the problem, is not sufficient by itself to grant an organization standing.”

He also sides a range of federal court cases in an effort to block the students motion to participate, “Nat’l Treasury Employees Union v. United States, [a 1995 federal case in District of Columbia.] In this case, the best the student organizations can claim is that have an 'interest in the problem' being addressed by the instant proposed Order of Control and Reconstitution. This, however, is simply not enough. Accordingly, for all these reasons, the Movants’ claim for permissive intervention.”

RIDE’s attorney DeSisto writes, “Accordingly, for all these reasons, the Movants’ claim for permissive intervention should similarly be rejected and the Motion to Intervene should be denied."

Finally, “In any event, the Movants fail to demonstrate entitlement to intervention as a matter of right or the right to permissive intervention. The Motion to Intervene should accordingly be denied.”