ACLU – Page 3 – RI Future

September 12, 2014September 12, 2014

ACLU: primary produced four voter ID law ‘problems’

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Virginia Chafee shows her id to a poll worker. — Virginia Chafee, the governor’s mother, shows her id to a poll worker.

A Providence woman was denied the right to vote, according to an ACLU press release which details four incidents in which Rhode Island’s controversial voter ID law caused problems at the polls on primary day.

“An elderly Hispanic woman who did not have identification was turned away from voting in Providence,” says the press release. “According to a poll watcher, the warden wrongly told her ‘even for a provisional ballot, you need an ID.’ The woman left without casting a ballot. The warden confirmed to the poll watcher that this was her understanding of the rules.”

The woman did not give her name, and did not speak with the poll watcher, said Johanna Kaiser, an ACLU spokeswoman. “Under the law, any person without proper ID is supposed to be given a provisional ballot, and if the signature they provide matches the one on their voter registration, the ballot ends up getting counted.” said the ACLU press release.

The ACLU had approximately 12 poll watchers at voting locations in Rhode Island and identified four “problems” – three on election day and one with an early voter.

According to the press release, a man casting an emergency ballot the day before the primary “was initially not given a provisional ballot, but instead was told he was unable to vote because he did not have proper identification. He got to vote only because another person waiting in line, who was familiar with the law’s requirement, forcefully advocated on the voter’s behalf.”

Here’s how the ACLU described the other two incidents:

“A Providence man with an expired license was initially told he could not vote. He told the ACLU that poll workers did not give him a provisional ballot until he showed them in writing that provisional ballots are available to voters without proper identification.”
“Poll workers in Pawtucket denied a voter a provisional ballot when he did not show photo ID. The voter, who was aware of his right to such a ballot, explained the law to the workers, who then had to call a supervisor. It then took poll workers 45 minutes to determine how to administer a provisional ballot, according to the voter.”

Said Steve Brown, executive director of the RI ACLU: “The voter ID law was promoted by the Secretary of State as necessary to address an alleged perception of voter fraud. Yet the implementation of this law is in fact, not in perception, denying qualified voters the right to vote. That is where the real concern should be, and why the law should be repealed.”

Kaiser added, “We will again be sending letters to the the Board of Elections raising concerns about poll workers not being given clear enough instructions about their obligations under the law, and urging the Board to address this before the November election. The ACLU and other organizations sent letters to the Board ahead the primary, but to our knowledge the Board took no further action.”

August 6, 2014August 6, 2014

Mancuso remarks draw ire on anti-NECAP groups

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A high stakes test graduation requirement is outlawed until 2017, but it’s still pitting Board of Education Chairwoman Eva Mancuso against the activists who fought to ban it.

The Providence Journal reports that using the NECAP test as a graduation requirement would have only deprived one student of a diploma, and in that article Mancuso is quoted as saying: “Maybe everybody should trust the professionals rather than running behind our backs and going to the legislature. The system worked just fine.”

In “response” six groups who argued to suspend the NECAP graduation requirement, sent a letter to legislative leaders:

An article in today’s Providence Journal quotes RI Board of Education Chair Eva S Marie Mancuso as citing RIDE! data that only one student benefitted from the “high stakes testing” moratorium bill that passed at the end of the session. In doing so, she suggests that passage of the law was unnecessary (or worse), and that its impact was negligible. Since she expressed interest in informing the General Assembly about the law’s impact from the Board’s perspective, our organizations thought! it worth making you aware of! it from our less defensive posture.

The groups are the RI ACLU, the Providence NAACP, the Providence Student Union, young Voices, RI Teachers of English Language Learners and Parents Across Rhode Island. You can read the letter here. It says the data is inaccurate (the ProJo article says only one student would have been denied a diploma but the ACLU says this document shows that three students in Bristol alone would not have graduated) and that the number of students potentially denied a diploma was but one reason for the moratorium.

“But perhaps its most important impact is in ensuring that, at least for the next three years, teachers won’t have to waste hours and hours of classroom time teaching to an irrelevant test, and students won’t be dragged out of real classwork in order to spend pointless hours cramming for a meaningless standardized test.”

July 18, 2014

New immigration detainer policy protects fundamental rights

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The policy of “detain first, investigate later” practiced by federal immigration officials no longer applies in Rhode Island now that the state Department of Corrections must stop honoring immigration detainers issued without probable cause.

In a significant victory for the rights of immigrants and the due process rights of all Rhode Islanders, Governor Chafee on Thursday issued a new policy stopping the DOC from relying on immigration detainers to hold people who otherwise should be released. These detainers requested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement are generally issued with no judicial oversight and keep people in jail simply because the agency wants to investigate them.

Now, ICE must abide by the same rules as any other law enforcement agency and obtain a warrant if it wants the state to detain someone in jail.

This welcomed policy shift is in recognition of a federal court ruling in which U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. found that holding individuals in jail based on these detainers is likely unconstitutional. That ruling was issued in an ACLU case on behalf of Rhode Island resident Ada Morales who, despite being a U.S. citizen, was twice unlawfully held in jail on the basis of erroneous immigration detainers.

Unfortunately, Ms. Morales is not the only person to be wrongly detained nationwide, but since Judge McConnell’s decision, other courts have issued similar rulings and over 130 local and state governments across the country have voluntarily adopted policies, like the new Rhode Island policy, of no longer honoring ICE detainers that are issued without judicial authorization.

By becoming the latest state to reject ICE’s indiscriminate detainer practices, Rhode Island has stood up for its residents and ensured they are secure in their fundamental right to live free from the fear of unwarranted detention.

May 1, 2014May 1, 2014

Citizens for Responsible Government forms to oppose Con-Con

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A large and growing number of groups interested in civil rights and the democratic process started a campaign yesterday at the Old state House on Benefit St in Providence to defeat a Constitutional Convention. Speaking at the event and providing reasons to oppose a Constitutional Convention were representatives from six of the thirty groups that have so far signed on.

Citizens for Responsible Government spokesman Pablo Rodriguez, MD and President of Latino Public Radio said that a Con-Con is a threat to civil rights, “Across the country, issues like affirmative action, reproductive rights, gay rights, worker rights, senior citizen rights and immigrant rights have become fodder for expensive statewide campaigns mounted by well-funded, out-of-state special interests.”

“The 1986 Constitutional Convention quickly spiraled from ‘good government’ to abortion politics,” said Paula Hodges, Director of Planned Parenthood Southern New England. “Women should be very concerned.”

George Nee, of the RI AFL-CIO says that “A Constitutional Convention, for all intents and purposes, puts our Constitution up for sale.” Outside money may well flood our state in response to ballot measures, and opposing this will be expensive. “Our money can be better spent elsewhere.”

Speaking for the RI ACLU, Hillary Davis also outlined the dangers of a Con-Con, as did Michael S. Van Leesten, who has fought for civil rights in various capacities for over forty years.

The last speaker was Jennifer Stevens of Rhode Island Pride. “One year after winning equal marriage rights through our state legislature we remember our long struggle and recognize that the same groups and individuals who opposed gay rights, and funded our opposition, will wish to play a role in a constitutional convention,” she said, “Every Rhode Islander should be concerned about attempts… to roll back or stifle LGBTQ and minority rights.”

Full disclosure, the Humanists of Rhode Island, a group of which I am President, is a proud member of this new coalition. Also in the coalition are RI Alliance for Retired Americans, AFSCME, Central Falls Teachers Union, RI Commission for Human Rights, RI Commission on Occupational Safety and Health, RI Economic Progress Institute, Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, Fuerza Laboral, IATSE Local 23, Jobs With Justice, National Association of Letter Carriers, National Council of Jewish Women RI, Providence Central Labor Council, Providence NAACP, RI National Association of Social Workers, RI NOW, RI Progressive Democrats, Secular Coalition for Rhode Island, UAW Local 7770, USW Local 16031, UWUA Local 310, UFCW Local 328, UNITE HERE, United Nurses and Allied Professionals, Warwick Teachers Union Local 915 and Women’s Health and Education Fund.

So far.

Michael S Van Leesten — Michael S. Van Leesten

April 27, 2014April 28, 2014

Judge says Board of Education should discuss NECAP policy in public

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With high school graduation imminently approaching, legislators, mayoral candidates, students, teachers, parents and community organizations have been discussing with frequency the Board of Education’s high stakes testing requirement for seniors. Remarkably, about the only entity that hasn’t publicly discussed the merits of the requirement is the Board itself.

Thanks to a court decision on Friday, that will soon change. But the Board’s refusal for so long to publicly defend their controversial policy – one that has the futures of literally hundreds of students hanging in the balance – demonstrates why it is critical for the General Assembly to step in and halt the NECAP testing requirement.

On three separate occasions in the past nine months, courts have found that the Board violated open government laws in avoiding publicly discussing the NECAP issue. In this most recent ruling, Superior Court Judge Luis Matos ordered the Board to finally come out of hiding.

Specifically, in response to a lawsuit we filed some months ago, the judge has required the Board to publicly discuss and vote on a petition submitted last June that asks the Board to hold a hearing on eliminating high stakes testing.

Last September, in a private meeting – that the judge held was a clear violation of the open meetings law – the Board rejected the petition by a 6-5 vote. Minutes of the secret meeting show that those who voted it down objected to reconsidering the mandate without having fall’s NECAP test results. Well, that excuse no longer exists. We know the results, and we know the harm that the NECAP requirement is wreaking on too many Rhode Island’s seniors, especially students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and those in the inner cities.

The court’s ruling is important for accountability: it is long past due for the Board to have a full and fair airing – in public – about why they think students’ futures should be ruined on the basis of an arbitrary standardized test. But the Board has dawdled long enough. It is difficult to put much faith in an agency that has violated the law three times to avoid the issue.

Whatever the Board ends up doing, let’s hope that legislators will take Friday’s ruling to heart, say “enough is enough,” and pass a bill that, at a minimum, puts a moratorium on high stakes testing. The stakes for hundreds of seniors are too high to wait any longer.

April 15, 2014April 15, 2014

ACLU sues Smithfield for unconstitutional ban on anonymous political speech

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The ACLU of Rhode Island today filed a federal lawsuit to prevent the Smithfield Police Department from continuing to enforce an overly broad state law that makes it a crime to circulate anonymous political literature, including unsigned newspaper editorials. The statute, which carries a potential one-year prison sentence, unconstitutionally bars the distribution of any anonymous political literature that relates to ballot questions or that criticizes a political candidate’s “personal character or political action.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled an almost identical Ohio statute unconstitutional and called anonymous pamphleteering “an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent” designed to “protect unpopular individuals from retaliation – and their ideas from suppression – at the hand of an intolerant society.” That 1995 ruling cited a long history of anonymous political literature in this country, including the Federalist Papers.

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the Rhode Island law has never been formally repealed, and last year the Smithfield Police Department arrested a political consultant for purportedly violating it. The Attorney General’s office later dismissed the charges, citing the Supreme Court case. In January, the ACLU wrote town officials to seek assurances that Smithfield police would no longer enforce the statute. The ACLU received no response; instead, news stories quoted town officials as calling the ACLU request “absolute nonsense” and stating that they intended to continue initiating criminal complaints under the statute.

The lawsuit, filed by ACLU of RI volunteer attorney Mark W. Freel, argues that statements like those, “despite clear rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, and despite positions taken by the State and the Attorney General in other cases, evidence[] a complete disregard for the rights of individuals … who wish to exercise their constitutionally protected right to engage in anonymous pamphleteering and electioneering on matters of public concern.” The suit, which does not challenge other more narrowly tailored disclosure requirements contained in campaign finance laws, seeks a court order declaring the statute unconstitutional, an injunction against any further enforcement of it by the town, and an award of attorney’s fees.

The plaintiff in the suit, Smithfield resident John Blakeslee, has disseminated written political materials over the years that could be deemed to violate the statute’s requirements. He said today: “Sometimes those expressing a minority opinion don’t feel safe giving their name and address, and voicing an unpopular point of view requires anonymity. As a gay rights activist, I participated in many activities in the 80’s and 90’s where identifying myself wasn’t an option; there was a real threat of violence and discrimination from police, employers, neighbors and others. A major reason for the First Amendment’s protection of free speech, including anonymous speech, is to give a voice to the oppressed. Nobody should have to worry about going to prison for exercising that right.”

ACLU attorney Freel added: “There is a long-standing tradition in this country’s legal and political history in favor of the right to comment anonymously on elections and candidates. The U.S. Supreme Court has clearly recognized that right, and has held that it is firmly embodied in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Town of Smithfield needs to recognize and respect that right, and any Rhode Island statute that is inconsistent with it should be struck down as unconstitutional.”

ACLU of RI executive Steven Brown noted: “Laws like this can have a chilling effect on free speech, and the town’s unwillingness to acknowledge this is deeply troubling. If Smithfield police want to enforce the law, they should start with the highest law of the land – the Constitution.”

Although anonymous literature that criticizes candidates for public office is a criminal offense under the statute, literature that supports or praises a candidate is not. The lawsuit argues that the statute “is not narrowly tailored to achieve whatever constitutionally legitimate interests the state may have.”

April 3, 2014

McCutcheon decision another reason to avoid Con Con

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Yesterday’s Supreme Court McCutcheon decision certainly means that the distorting power of money over what’s left of American democracy is not going to abate any time soon. Given this, perhaps we should think twice before opening the “Pandora’s Box” of a Constitutional Convention here in Rhode Island. At the forum held recently at Bryant University, Justice Robert Flanders Jr made the suspect claim that lobbyists would be at a loss to navigate the unknown corridors of power at a Con Con. Fortunately, Steve Brown of the ACLU quickly pointed out the paucity of this argument.

Lobbyists will be a part of the Constitutional Convention, were one to be held here in Rhode Island. Big money will enjoy yet another avenue to warp our politics and our society. Some say the risk is small, and the gains to be had are big. This is exactly what they tell you at Foxwoods, but gambling isn’t a sound economic plan or an intelligent political strategy.

April 3, 2014April 3, 2014

ACLU raises concern about pension settlement voting

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With the first round of voting in the controversial pension reform settlement set to conclude today, the ACLU of Rhode Island has announced plans to submit testimony at an anticipated “fairness hearing,” if one occurs, in order to raise concerns about the settlement’s opt-out voting process.

In the past month, the RI ACLU has received dozens of complaints from union members and retirees about the settlement’s “opt-out” voting process, which counts all unreturned ballots as votes in support of the settlement. In a letter to the complainants, the ACLU acknowledged the legitimacy of those concerns, noting that:

Although opt-out voting is a common practice in class-action litigation, such a procedure occurs after a class has been approved, not before.
An opt-out process fails to give voters the opportunity to abstain or otherwise remain neutral. “The opportunity to take no position on this agreement is one that current union members and retirees should have, and that a normal voting process would allow,” the ACLU letter states.
Referring to reports of qualified individuals who did not receive ballots, and noting other reasons why some voting members might be unable to return theirs, the letter said that “the inadvertent loss of a right to vote is worrisome enough, but the problem is compounded if the loss of that vote actually counts as a vote in one – and only one – particular way.”

A fairness hearing, in which the court decides whether the proposed settlement agreement is fair and reasonable, will only be held if none of the designated “classes” of voters reject the proposal during the two rounds of voting that will take place.

While planning to submit testimony at that hearing, the ACLU advised complainants it would not be taking any independent legal action. The letter concluded by emphasizing that while the ACLU did not “question the good faith of all the parties who have been involved in this intricate litigation . . . an opt-in process is the only fair way to conduct a vote like this.”

March 10, 2014

ACLU report shows record high racial disparities in school discipline rates

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A report issued by the ACLU of Rhode Island today shows that Rhode Island’s public schools last year disproportionately suspended black students at the highest rates in nine years, while white students were suspended at record low rates. Like black children, Hispanic students remained severely over-suspended, with these disparities reaching all the way to the lowest grades. In addition, students generally – including elementary school children – were given out-of-school suspensions at alarming rates for minor disciplinary infractions.

The report, “Blacklisted: An Update,” is a follow-up to one the ACLU issued last June, which examined eight previous years of suspension data. That report also documented and explored the dangers of out-of-school suspensions and the disproportionate impact of suspensions on black and Hispanic youth, but the latest statistics demonstrate that the inappropriate and discriminatory use of out-of-school suspensions – even at the elementary school level – continues unabated across Rhode Island.

Among the findings from a review of data from the 2012-2013 school year:

Black students were suspended from school 2.19 times as often as would be expected based on their school population. This is a record high suspension disparity for black students over the nine years the ACLU has studied. Hispanic students were suspended over one-and-a-half times as often as expected. White students, in contrast, were suspended just 0.64 times what would be expected, a record low.

Twenty-five school districts disproportionately suspended black students. Twenty-six school districts disproportionately suspended Hispanic students.

Suspensions remained endemic at the lowest grades, and continued to disproportionately affect minority students. Nearly 1,400 elementary school students – and 147 first grade students – were suspended last year, and black elementary school students were suspended more than three times as often as expected based on their representation.

Despite nationwide efforts to promote the use of out-of-school suspensions only in extreme circumstances, over 60 percent of the suspensions for Rhode Island students last year were for low-risk behavioral infractions.

One-third of all suspensions were served for the vague infractions of “Disorderly Conduct” and “Insubordination/Disrespect.” In fact, thousands more suspensions occurred for “Disorderly Conduct” and “Insubordination/ Disrespect” than for assault, bomb threats, breaking and entering, possession or use of controlled substances, fire regulation violations, fighting, gang activity, harassment, hate crimes, hazing, larceny, threats, trespassing, vandalism or weapon possession combined.
More than a quarter of elementary school suspensions were for “Disorderly Conduct” alone. Despite making up one-third of the elementary school population, black and Hispanic students constituted two-thirds of the elementary school students suspended for “Disorderly Conduct” or “Insubordination/Disrespect.”
Although the total number of suspensions overall was down from previous years, that reduction can be attributed almost exclusively to implementation of a law passed by the General Assembly in 2012 prohibiting out-of-school suspensions for attendance infractions. In fact, while overall suspensions decreased, the number of suspensions for low-risk behavioral infractions increased by more than 400.

The report concluded: “Rhode Island’s students deserve an education system that seeks to promote rather than punish them, and efforts by educators and the legislature in 2014 can make that possible. Swift action by Rhode Island’s leaders can ensure that another cohort of children does not find themselves the subject of increasingly grim statistics, and instead finds them granted all the educational opportunities we have to offer them.”

In finding little change from the eight years’ worth of statistics analyzed in its last report, the ACLU reiterated a series of recommendations for policy-makers to address this serious problem. Among the ACLU’s recommendations this year: the General Assembly should approve legislation limiting the use of out-of-school suspensions to serious offenses; school districts should examine annually their discipline rates for any racial or ethnic disparities, and identify ways to eliminate them; schools should ensure that punishments are clearly and evenly established for various offenses; and the state Department of Education should investigate and promote the use of alternative evidence-based disciplinary methods.

February 26, 2014

National experts testify in support of halting NECAP graduation requirement

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National education experts are now joining students, parents, education and advocacy groups and the RI ACLU in urging the Department of Education to end its mandate requiring students to pass the NECAP test in order to graduate.

Three national education experts are submitting written testimony to the House Health, Education and Welfare Committee today in support of legislation that would delay or halt the state’s “high stakes testing” requirement for high school seniors.

The experts say, among other things, that high stakes testing requirements increase dropout rates, narrow curriculum, and disproportionately impact minority students and students with disabilities. In fact, according to the latest RIDE statistics, almost 1,600 seniors remain at risk of not getting a diploma because of the testing requirement.

Here are brief excerpts from their written testimony:

Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of Education at Stanford University, director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, and education adviser to Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign:

“The preponderance of research indicates that test-based requirements for graduation do not generally improve achievement, but do increase dropout rates… Studies have raised concerns about reduced graduation rates, especially for African American and Latino students, English language learners, and students with disabilities; reduced incentives for struggling students to stay in school rather than drop out or pursue a GED; increased incentives for schools to encourage low-achieving students to leave school, especially when test scores are part of the state school accountability system, so as to improve the appearance of average school scores; narrowing of the curriculum and neglect of higher order performance skills where limited measures are used; and invalid judgments about student learning from reliance on a single set of test measures, a practice discouraged by professional testing experts.” (Full testimony)

Ron Wolk, founder of Education Week, the newspaper of record in American education:

“Despite hundreds of millions of dollars and countless hours spent on standards and testing over the past 25 years, student achievement has not significantly improved, and the gap that separates needy and minority students from more affluent white students persists. … [A recent RIDE report] reveals that over the past five years, reading and math scores in the 4th, 6th, and 8th grades have increased by about 4 percent—about 0.8 percent a year. Eleventh grade scores in both reading and math increased by an impressive 8 percent over the past five years. Since more than 25 percent of all Rhode Island students score below proficient in reading, however, and about 40 percent score below proficient in math, it could take roughly 25 more years to get all students to proficiency in reading at the current rate of progress, and as many as 40 years to get all students to proficiency in math. Most importantly, it is a serious mistake to equate test scores with learning. Studies have shown that intense test preparation can raise scores, but the ‘learning’ is often transitory and temporary.” (Full testimony)

Lisa Guisbond, policy analyst for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest):

“The ‘model’ exit exam state, Massachusetts, still has persistent, unacceptably large gaps in educational opportunity and achievement… In Massachusetts, disparities in dropout rates persist more than 10 years after the state adopted MCAS high school graduation tests. Latino and African-American students drop out at rates three to four times that of white students, and 11th and 12th graders who have not passed MCAS are more than 13 times more likely to drop out of school than those who have passed . . . Students with disabilities have been hit particularly hard and make up a steadily growing portion of Massachusetts students who don’t graduate because of the MCAS graduation test. Students receiving special education were five times more likely to fail MCAS in 2002-03; by 2011-12, they were 15 times more likely to fail.” (Full testimony)

The RI ACLU is also testifying in support of these bills and will continue to work towards the elimination of standardized test results as a graduation requirement.

February 19, 2014February 20, 2014

Cranston residents suing because prison ‘residents’ dilute political power

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Today marks the announcement that Cranston residents are filing suit because their voting rights are being violated. Cranston! You might be wondering: “Where do these lawsuits come from?” It turns out, good ol’ RIFuture played a part.

About eight years ago I saw Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) founder Peter Wagner give a presentation on “Prison Based Gerrymandering” in New York State. He illustrated how taking thousands of men from, typically, New York City and sending them to live in cages Upstate shifted political power to those Upstate areas. They did this by counting the prisoners as “residents” who are then represented by politicians at the same rate as the free residents. Naturally, the politicians do not cater to the interests of the prison residents; in fact, the politicians interest is in getting more prisoners, to inflate their power. A tiny little district with a big warehouse full of cages will get the same vote in Albany as a place with twice as many people living in it.

About five years ago I did an analysis of Rhode Island, posted it on RIFuture (archive unavailable), and Peter Wagner took note. It turns out that Cranston, with its consolidated Adult Correctional Institutions, is one of the most impacted areas of the country. A small coalition formed on this esoteric elections issue, including Direct Action for Rights & Equality, PPI, ACLU, and Common Cause. Senator Harold Metts sponsored a bill to make this change, targeting the 2010 Census, but the bill was not passed before redistricting time.

“The Residence of Those in Government Custody Act,” introduced as S 2286 by Senators Metts, Crowley, Pichardo, and Jabour on February 4, 2014, and as H 7263 by Representatives Williams, Tanzi, Slater, Diaz, and Palangio, on January 30, 2014.

Now the issue has gotten down to the personal level, as residents of Cranston who don’t have the blessing of living next to the prison are challenging why they have less political power. For example, six people who live near the prison will fight for their politician’s ear for every 10 people who live on the other side of town. Multiply that out. There is a reason that districts should be of similar population size, and its about ten people’s voices being the equivalent of ten people’s voices when making large decisions. Unless those people locked up in the ACI start getting their voice in the discussion, they are being used to puff up the district.

Some states have already passed laws that eliminate this problem. Of course, if Rhode Island did so, the lawsuit would be moot.

January 24, 2014

ACLU’s Steve Brown on the NECAP graduation requirement waiver

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RI ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown has been a huge critic of the state’s high stake test high school graduation requirement and the exemptions to the policy prove it hasn’t been properly implemented. Brown said several school districts from around the state still don’t have policies in place, and others left important areas blank. Listen to our conversation here:

January 24, 2014January 24, 2014

RIF Radio: ACLU’s Steve Brown on NECAP waivers, Tiverton’s Rep Canario on GMO labeling

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Friday Jan 24, 2013
North Kingstown, RI – Good morning, Ocean State Futurists. This is Bob Plain, editor and publisher of the RI Future blog podcasting to you from The Hideaway on the banks of the Mattatuxet River behind the Shady Lea Mill in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

Later on in the show, we’ll be checking in with we’ll be checking in with Steve Brown of the ACLU on Waivergate, the latest fiasco with the NECAP graduation requirement. We’ll also here from Rep. Dennis Canario, a legislator who represents Sakonnet and parts of Portsmouth, on why he is pushing a bill this session to label genetically modified foods.

Our show today is brought to you by Largess Forestry. Preservationists and licensed arborists, no one will care for your trees better than Matt Largess and his crew. If you’ve got a tree or a woodlot in need of some sprucing up, call Matt today for a free consultation at 849-9191 … or friend them on Facebook.

It is Thursday, January 24 and the unemployment rate is up, but so is our population. And, if you ask me, so is our collective psyche. I can just kinda feel it everywhere I go that Rhode Islanders are feeling better about the biggest little state in the union … And I give major credit to Linc Chafee, the Rhode Island Foundation and all the other folks who work tirelessly to focus on what’s great about Rhode Island and pick us up by our bootstraps. Seriously, if we can break the inferiority complex that the Ocean State has long suffered from, we’ll have done something a lot more important than simply created some wealth and maybe a couple jobs…

There were 400 more unemployed people in Rhode Island in December than the previous month bringing the total number to an almost eerily even 49,900, reports the Providence Journal this morning. This has become our monthly box score and reporters, politicians and pundits comb through these monthly numbers the way I poured over NBA agit in the ProJo when I was a kid…

January 23, 2014

Waiver chaos sparks ACLU to ask Guida to suspend NECAP policy

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Steve Brown, executive director of the RI ACLU, sent word to Patrick Guida, a member of the Board of Education and chairman of the ad hoc committee studying high stakes testing, that confusion over the waiver process proves it’s high time to reconsider the controversial NECAP graduation requirement policy.

[READ THE LETTER HERE]

“It is important for the Committee to realize that, as things currently exist, the waiver process is, in many instances, a completely arbitrary hodgepodge of inconsistent, incomplete, and poorly advertised policies that can only leave students and parents understandably anxious and perplexed,” Brown wrote in his letter.

In a subsequent phone interview, Guida said, “I have great respect for Steve Brown and am taking the letter very seriously” but added that he wanted to discuss the issue with committee members and Chairwoman Eva Mancuso before commenting on the letter. “As a board member I vote in favor of the assessment and still believe we need some form of assessment, but I am also very sensitive to the issues going around.”

The latest issue with the NECAP graduation requirement is the waiver process he state asked cities and town to develop for students who don’t pass the test.

Brown said in his letter: “Approximately two and a half months ago, the ACLU filed an open records request with all school districts to obtain a copy of their waiver policy as well as any documents related to its implementation, including any notice or instructions provided to parents or students about it and any forms that must be completed for a student to apply for a waiver. Such information is, obviously, essential for any meaningful waiver process, and required by RIDE’s guidance and regulations. The results of our request, however, were less than encouraging.”

You can read Brown’s entire letter here .

November 12, 2013November 12, 2013

Board of Education faces secrecy scrunity today in court

board of education executive session — A RIDE employee told me I wasn’t allowed to take this picture of the Board of Education meeting in executive session.

The new state Board of Education is well-known for trying to tamp down public discussion of the NECAP high stakes graduation requirement and today it will be in Superior Court defending itself against allegations from high school students, civil libertarians and other various equality activists who say it went too far in trying to silence the debate.

The ACLU, the Providence Student Union and others are seeking $5,000 from the Board of Education for “engaging in a knowing and/or willful violation of the Open Meetings Act,” according to the law suit, when the Board dealt with a petition to redress the high stakes testing issue earlier this year. The plaintiffs are also asking that whatever conversations happened behind closed doors be makde public.

Both parties are expected before Judge Luis Matos at 2 p.m. today in Providence.

“As a result of the high stakes testing requirement, scheduled to take effect in 2014, approximately 4,000 students face the risk of not graduating next year because of their scores on the current test, known as the NECAP,” according to the RI ACLU’s blog. “Yet to this day, despite repeated pleas from parents, students and community groups, the Board has refused to publicly discuss the requirement.”

The lawsuit contends the Board illegally addressed the petition in closed session. It is the second time the ACLU has accused the Board of Education of circumventing public scrutiny on the issue of high stakes testing. Only weeks before this suit, a judge forced the Board of Education to hold a planned private “retreat” publicly instead.

Earlier this year, a wide range of community groups that advocate for racial equality, social justice, disabled children and/or civil liberties asked the Board of Education to revisit its decision to make a passing or improving on a standardized test a condition of graduation. Despite widespread concern that a high stakes graduation requirement would unfairly punish students from lackluster school districts and place a greater burden on non-traditional learners, like students on the autism spectrum or English language learners, the Board declined the request.

October 22, 2013October 22, 2013

ACLU honors PSU as ‘Civil Libertarians of the Year’

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The Rhode Island ACLU is honoring the Providence Student Union with its “Raymond J. Pettine Civil Libertarian of the Year” award at its annual dinner in November.

The students of PSU have, with professionalism, passion, conviction, and humor, and always with a positive message, brought issues of students’ rights in general, and the dangers of high stakes testing in particular, to the forefront of the public debate,” said Steve Brown, executive director of the RI ACLU. “We are grateful for, and pleased to recognize, those efforts and also recognize the hope they hold for the future of the state.”

The PSU has brought national and local focus to high stakes testing in Rhode Island. The student group has parlayed creative direct actions, like a zombie march and an adult test-taking session, into appearances on national television and prominent op/ed pages. They’ve been lauded by Diane Ravitch and dismissed by Deborah Gist. As a result, they’ve managed to make the NECAP a pressing political issue in Rhode Island, with the General Assembly and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras calling for reconsideration while the Board of Education and RIDE keep hoping the issue will go away.

The adult leaders of the group are Aaron Regunberg and Zack Mazera, two recent Brown grads who decided to take on the education reform movement in Rhode Island by helping to organize students around the issue.

“The award is being given to the student organization for its inventive, passionate and positive efforts to give students a voice in decisions affecting their education, and particularly for the group’s strong advocacy against the state’s new high stakes testing requirement for high school seniors,” according to a press release from the ACLU.

September 16, 2013September 16, 2013

ACLU: Board of Ed. violates open meeting law again

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Eva Mancuso’s secrecy sideshow continues as the ACLU says the Board of education has again violated the state open meeting law.

“This latest lawsuit, an expansion of one filed in July, challenges the Board’s debate and vote in secret last week to reject a petition by seventeen organizations for a public hearing on repealing the “high stakes testing” graduation requirement,” according to an ACLU press release sent today. “…the secret discussion violated the Open Meetings Act, and asks the court to declare the vote null and void, impose a $5,000 fine against the Board for willfully violating the law, and require the Board to consider the petition on its merits.”

In the first open meetings lawsuit the ACLU brought against the Board of Education, a judge prevented the Board from discussing the ACLU’s request to revisit the issue in public. The Board responded by discussing the merits of the issue itself in private and determined it deserved no extra public debate.

According to the press release:

The Board finally placed the petition on its September 9th meeting agenda. Before getting to that item, however, the Board went into closed session, purportedly to discuss the ACLU’s underlying APA lawsuit. Immediately upon reconvening into open session, however, Mancuso announced that the Board had not only discussed the lawsuit, but had also discussed the petition itself in its closed session and had voted, 6-5, to reject the petition.

The ACLU also included a timeline of events leading up to its latest lawsuit against the Board of Education.

September 10, 2013September 10, 2013

Board of Ed doesn’t want a NECAP debate

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High stakes testing is perhaps the most highly-charged political issue in Rhode Island this year – it continues to make national news and an extremely diverse coalition of parents, civil libertarians and disability activists have sued the state over the brand new policy that could leave 40 percent of high school seniors without a diploma. But the Board of Education doesn’t want to discuss it.

In a 6 to 5 vote last night, Governor Linc Chafee’s Board of Education voted against revisiting using the NECAP test as a high stakes graduation requirement.

“It’s certainly disappointing but I’m not discouraged,” said Jean Ann Guliano, an East Greenwich parent and politician. Guliano, who was chairwoman of the East Greenwich School Committee and ran for Lt. Gov as a member of the Moderate Party, has a son with autism whose hopes of graduating high school could be dashed by the NECAP requirement. “A 6-5 vote means that some people are starting to listen.”

But Steven Brown, executive director of the RI ACLU, which says the NECAP requirement unfairly targets poor and disabled students, was less conciliatory. In a statement sent out this morning, he said:

It is unconscionable that thousands of high school seniors may soon face their loss of a diploma based on an arbitrary test score, and will do so pursuant to a policy that the Board of Education itself has never directly considered.

Even worse, just weeks after being chided by a court for seeking to hold a discussion of high stakes testing in secret at a ‘private’ retreat, the Board tonight once again showed its disdain for the open meetings law by discussing this petition in complete secrecy. The public has no idea whatsoever why the Board took the action it did last night, and that is the antithesis of what the open meetings law is all about. We will be considering next steps, as this fight is far from over.

The Providence Journal reports “Those voting to deny the students’ petition were: (chairwoman Eva) Mancuso, Michael Bernstein, Karin Forbes, Jo Eva Gaines, William Maaia and Patrick Guida. Those voting in favor of reconsidering the NECAP were: Antonio Barajas, Colleen Callahan, Larry Purtill, Michael Grande and Mathies Santos.”

Rhode Island’s Race to the Top federal funding is tied to its plans to use he NECAP for student and teacher evaluation.

September 9, 2013September 10, 2013

Will Board of Ed. reconsider NECAP test policy?

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As standardized testing becomes an increasingly politicized component of the so-called “education reform” movement, the state Board of Education could decide tonight to review a previous Board’s decision to use the NECAP test as a graduation requirement.

The AP reports today that Rhode Island is one of the places around the country where teachers, activists and students are pushing back against the use of standardized tests.

The initial decision was made approved in 2011 by then-Board members Robert Flanders, Patrick Guida, Anna Cano-Morales, Amy Beretta, Karin Forbes and Betsy Shimberg. A loose coalition ranging from Providence students to East Greenwich parents is asking the current Board to reconsider in light of new information.

Meanwhile, the ACLU reminded Governor Chafee, in a press release last week, that his appointees to the Board of Education haven’t debated the NECAPs as a graduation requirement.

Said Executive Director Steven Brown in a statement:

The new Board of Education has never had the opportunity to fully hear from the public, much less take a position on, the actions of its predecessor – the Board of Regents – in approving high stakes testing. We are hopeful that, as a principled leader who has shown his commitment to governing with careful consideration, Governor Chafee will support an official rule-making process where all members of the public can provide testimony so that the Board can consider in a deliberate manner whether to change the policy. Whatever the Governor’s position on this controversial issue, we hope he agrees it is at least worthy of a full examination.

In Rhode Island, use of the NECAP as a graduation requirement has met with stiff opposition since it became evident that some 40 percent of students didn’t perform well enough to graduate. Since then a fairly disparate coalition of students, teachers, parents and activists have come together to ask the Board to reconsider the matter. Use of standardized tests as a graduation requirement and for teacher evaluations is tied to Race to the Top funds for Rhode Island.

August 7, 2013August 8, 2013

Judge: Ed. Board should discuss NECAPs in public

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The Board of Education must discuss the NECAP high stakes graduation requirement in public or not at all, a judge ruled yesterday after the ACLU appealed the board’s decision to discuss the politically-charged issue at a private “retreat” rather than at a public meeting.

“This is an important victory for the public and for transparency in government,” said Steven Brown, executive director of the RI ACLU.

It’s also an important victory for the broad coalition asking the Board to reconsider using the NECAP as a graduation requirement. The group, which ranges from organized inner city students to suburban parents to a majority of state legislators, has waged a high profile campaign that has drawn significant attention to the problems with using the NECAP test as a graduation requirement. Civil libertarians say high stakes testing unfairly favors the affluent, while psychometricians say the NECAP wasn’t designed to test individual assessment.

It’s also a important loss for board chairwoman Eva Mancuso as it is the second time in as many weeks as she’s been front and center in an issue flouting the public interest. Recently, Governor Chafee nominated her to oversee higher education in Rhode Island but she withdrew from contention because public board members are not allowed to be given jobs with the organizations they presided over.

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