In a disdainful and dishonest act last evening, the Council for Elementary and Secondary Education, part of the RI Board Of Education, unanimously passed the inaccurate and overly-politicized social studies standards, as proposed by Commissioner Angelica Infante Green and her RI Department of Education.

Despite overwhelming public opposition, and without any discussion at all, the Council mindlessly rubber-stamped adoption of these controversial standards. In doing so, these political-supremacist elitists exhibited their incredible disdain for the average parent, student, and citizen … over 200 of whom petitioned the council to reject these overtly woke, divisive, and anti-American history curricula guidelines.

The seven voting members of the council are: Michael Almeida, Amy Beretta, Colleen Callahan, Karen Davis, Patricia DiCenso, Jo Eva Gaines, and Marta Martinez.

And it’s not as if they were unaware of the public outcry. I personally twice respectfully emailed 5 of the 7 voting members with a link to our Center’s report, Taken for a RIDE, which critiqued the standards, along with a link to a post containing the passionate comments of many of those grassroots Rhode Islanders who submitted emails urging rejection. Of the 10 emails I sent out, only once did a member provide the courtesy of a response.

Neither our report, nor the public’s comments were even considered for a single moment … within seconds, a motion was made, seconded, and approved without any discussion or concern for the future of the educational integrity of our entire state’s future American history teachings; curricula that will soon be imposed on every school district and student in Rhode Island.

Perhaps most indicative of the Council’s woke ignorance, was a comment by one member, who, just after RIDE’s presentation, stated, “As you guys know, I’ve been asking for this for a few years … and there has been some collaboration with the “1679 committee” that has done a lot of research … and I’m glad to see them as a partner …”

This idiot of a Council member surely was referring to the “1619 Project”, an initiative of the NY Times, which seeks to re-write American history almost completely through the lens of “oppressors-vs-oppressed” … instead of promoting America’s true birthright – its noble pursuit of liberty – even as imperfect as that pursuit has often been.

This one, single comment perfectly demonstrates the many problems with the adoption process of these standards. It should alarm all Rhode Islanders to be openly told of the left’s long-time objective to control what is taught to our children; to hear an admission that RI’s new social studies standards are part of the New York Time’s woke and false movement; to witness the proud bravado of these elitists who really do seem to believe in their own malarkey; and to observe the laughable error of not even being able to correctly identify the 1619 Project, instead calling it the 1679 committee.

The dishonesty arises from the stated policy of the BOE on its own meeting agenda, which clearly states that public comments that are submitted via email will be “shared with the Council in advance of the meeting.”

Based on the swift and automatic rubber-stamp approval, it appears obvious that these emotional emails were NOT shared with the Council. Our organization contacted the BOE this morning, asking them to “confirm and advise if and how those emails were shared with Council members.” So far there has been no response.

In RIDE’s presentation of its proposed standards, it stressed how in 2022 community they obtained feedback from fake and obviously ‘rigged’ community forums, and how important that feedback was to their process … but apparently community feedback from the general public now in 2023 is not so important.

If the emails were shared, and not one Council member opted to make them a discussion item … instead completely ignoring them … it then becomes obvious that the DISDAIN these elitists hold for you, me, and the public is even worse than I could ever have imagined.

YOU CAN TAKE ACTION: The public is invited to sign an online petition to support already submitted legislation to repeal the 2019 law that granted RIDE curricula mandate authority.