The U.S. Department of Justice accused Providence public schools and the Rhode Island Department of Education of “blatant race discrimination” in a lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday over a loan forgiveness program for teachers of color.
The Providence Public School District’s “Educators of Color Loan Forgiveness Program” offered “teachers of color” up to $25,000 in student-loan forgiveness. RIDE, which manages the city’s schools under a state takeover, launched the program with PPSD in 2021 using funding from the Rhode Island Foundation.
The federal government’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Providence, claims the program violated the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 by excluding white teachers.
Spokespeople for the state Department of Education and Providence Public School District declined to answer questions about the lawsuit.
“Over the last few months, PPSD and RIDE worked in good faith with the U.S. Department of Justice to reach a resolution on this matter,” the organizations wrote in a joint statement. “PPSD and RIDE officials have not been served, and we were not informed by federal representatives that they would proceed with a lawsuit. Since there is active litigation, PPSD and RIDE will not be commenting further.”
The lawsuit is the latest effort by the Trump Administration to curtail diversity programs. In June, the DOJ notified Rhode Island’s attorney general that it had opened an investigation into whether the state engaged in a pattern of discrimination more generally. In August, a coalition of states, including Rhode Island, announced it had successfully sued to unlock federal education funding the Trump Administration had apparently frozen in an effort to root out “woke ideology.”
Ocean State Media’s Ben Berke contributed to this story. It is a developing story and will be updated.
