Rhode Island Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green has a lot on her plate. She’s leading the state’s takeover of Providence Public Schools; now in its sixth year. In an interview with Ocean State Media’s Luis Hernandez, Infante-Green said that while progress has been made in improving Providence schools, she doesn’t expect the city to regain control of the district until 2027, at the earliest.
Infante-Green spoke about a variety of other topics, including her belief that declining student enrollment in Rhode Island is going to lead to more conversations about how to regionalize school services. She also discussed her concerns about potential immigration enforcement efforts in Rhode Island schools and the local impact of federal efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.
Interview highlights
On when the state takeover of Providence Public Schools will end
Angélica Infante-Green: What I have said is that 2027 is when we would end the intervention. I know that the city and the school board are anxious to have it a year earlier. Every month we meet with them to make sure that everybody’s on the same page.
We’re not there yet. There’s still challenges. There’s still decisions that are made that are not in the best interest of the district. It seems a little adversarial when it shouldn’t be. We need everybody working together so that the district can succeed. I think they’re trying, and we’ll see when they get there.
I do think [the state takeover has] been worth it… The bureaucracy, the buildings were in shambles, the politics that were really part of what was happening in the district; when we intervened, we took a lot of that out. We focused on the buildings, we focused on instruction. We increased the number of school days when we had the opportunity. We have focused our attention on student progress and improvement.
On whether she thinks Rhode Island schools are too segregated
Infante-Green: If you look at it geographically, I would say yes, but that’s where the kids live… It’s not something that we have been paying close attention to because what we have been paying attention to is diversifying the teaching force that works with the students. And that’s really important for us because we know that there’s real concrete research about students seeing teachers that look like them; they have better outcomes. We know that there’s been tons of research on that, so we have been focusing our energy on diversifying the teaching force so that the students can benefit from that.
On how federal efforts to dismantle the Department of Education impact Rhode Island
Infante-Green: What the Department of Education does is safeguard the resources that we are using in our state. Their recent decision to send most of their staff and supports to the Department of Labor is very chaotic for us. What we have been told is that we will be working with the Department of Labor and they will continue to oversee [our funding]. So in essence, there’s more bureaucracy for us, more people for us to work with. And it’s very confusing. It sends a very difficult message for us about how the profession is viewed. It’s chaos. It feels like every month we don’t know what’s coming our way, and it’s very hard to plan and do our work without the same kind of focus.
On the impact of declining student enrollment in Rhode Island
Infante-Green: I think what will have to happen is that we are going to have to regionalize. We’re going to have to work together if this continues. This started in 2008 when the birth rate began to drop, so we knew this was coming. Every day and every year we see (enrollment) diminish.
We’re going to have to make tough decisions. We’re going to have to sit down and see how we share resources, what schools will have to close, what buildings we’re going to have to consolidate. There’s a lot of things that are going to happen in the next few years because of the diminishing enrollment numbers.
It’s complicated, especially in Rhode Island. Everybody really loves where they go to school. But it just doesn’t make sense sometimes to have two elementary schools and two districts side-by-side that are half empty. So I think that that’s something that we’re going to be looking at. It will not be easy, but we’re going to have to involve the communities in having those conversations.
On whether local schools can protect students during a potential ICE raid
Infante-Green: Everybody’s prepared to protect the kids within the school building, but what we’ve seen is that people are being picked up outside of school. So we are being very vigilant, reminding everyone of their rights. My own kids ask me “Do we have to start carrying ID?” It’s a little scary. What we have done is just educate and we will continue to educate our communities at large.
