The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Rhode Island Department of Education and Providence Public School District, alleging that the PPSD’s Educators of Color Loan Forgiveness Program racially discriminated against white teachers.
The program, which offers eligible teachers of color up to $25,000 to repay student loans over three years, was created in 2021 by the PPSD and RIDE in collaboration with the Rhode Island Foundation to increase the racial diversity of PPSD teachers.
To qualify, teachers must be new hires, have at least $5,000 in student loan debt and identify as racially diverse — which includes Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, biracial or multiracial teachers.
The lawsuit follows a 2022 civil rights complaint filed by the Legal Insurrection Foundation, a conservative Rhode Island-based legal and media organization.
“We are thrilled that the DOJ has filed a lawsuit since PPSD has continued to operate the program despite being on notice from our legal complaints that the program was illegal,” William Jacobson, president, director and founder of the LIF, wrote in an email to The Herald.
The U.S. Department of Education referred the complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — a federal agency that enforces workplace racial discrimination laws — and that referral led to the opening of a DOJ investigation in March.
“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,” Suzanne Ouellette, a PPSD spokesperson told The Herald.
“There are so many benefits to having teachers of color for all students, not just students of color,” Kate Donohue MA’18, director of R.I. Research Partnerships and Analytics at Brown’s Annenberg Institute, told The Herald. “There is such a mismatch in Providence between students and teachers.”
“It’s more likely for teachers of color to hold more student loans than white teachers,” she added. To Donohue, the program was a way to address that gap.
“While assisting new teachers in paying off their student loans may be a worthy cause, such a benefit of employment simply cannot be granted or withheld on the basis of the teachers’ race,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a press release.
“The answer to past discrimination is not more discrimination,” Jacobson added. “Racism cannot solve racism. You may think you are helping, but you are making things worse.”
