DOJ Reportedly Opens Investigation Into Providence Schools Program Challenged By Equal Protection Project

DOJ Reportedly Opens Investigation Into Providence Schools Program Challenged By Equal Protection Project

You may recall the Providence (RI) public schools Educator of Color Loan Forgiveness Program, in which newly hired and recent teachers could get up to $25,000 of student loans paid off by the Rhode Island Foundation — but only if the teachers were non-white.

Legal Insurrection Foundation, not long before we launched the Equal Protection Project, was the first to call attention to this program. On November 14, 2022, after a several month long investigation including public records requests, LIF filed a Civil Rights Complaint against PPSD detailing the racially-discriminatory nature of the program, and RIF’s role, with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education.

LIF brings this civil rights complaint against the Providence Public School District in Providence, Rhode Island (“PPSD” or “the District”) for PPSD’s past, present, ongoing, and planned future practice of discriminating on the basis of race, color and national origin through a student loan forgiveness program for newly and recently hired District educators that is only available to non-white applicants. This program, which PPSD calls the “Educator of Color Loan Forgiveness Program,” is funded by the Rhode Island Foundation (RIF), the largest charity in Rhode Island, and is administered and implemented by PPSD as part of PPSD’s hiring process pursuant to a multi-year agreement.

OCR made a formal referral of the matter to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in February 2023, presumably because the conduct was viewed as more of an employment than educational practice. The case has sat at EEOC without any enforcement action for two years, despite repeated follow up by LIF. While regulators have sat on their hands, RIF and PPSD continued to operate the racially-disciminatory Educator of Color Loan Forgiveness Program.

On February 25, 2025, I posted on Legal Insurrection a call for the Department of Justice to investigate this program as part of a broader investigation of the Rhode Island Foundation, The Rhode Island Foundation’s Discriminatory Grantmaking Warrants Civil Rights Investigation.

Bradley Jaye at Breitbart News is exclusively reporting tonight that the DOJ has opened a major investigation:

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened an investigation into possible discriminatory employment practices at the Rhode Island Department of Education (“RIDE”) and Providence Public Schools (PPS), Breitbart News learned exclusively Friday.

DOJ opened a civil pattern or practice investigation into RIDE and PPS to assess whether their employment practices discriminate against teachers at PPS who identify as white by offering a student loan repayment program only to non-white teachers.

“Establishing or using race-conscious terms and conditions or benefits of employment is a denial of equal employment opportunity and violates Title VII,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mac Warner of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a statement obtained by Breitbart News. “This investigation will evaluate whether the Rhode Island Department of Education and Providence Public Schools have violated Title VII in failing to provide equal benefits of employment to all its teachers.”

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, and religion. That law gives DOJ the authority to investigate state and local government employers where it has reason to believe that a “pattern or practice” of employment discrimination exists.

DOJ’s letter to RIDE and PPS notifying them of the investigation was signed by acting Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle, who Attorney General Pam Bondi charged with supervising the investigation.

Civil Rights Division Deputy Assistant Attorneys General Mac Warner and Michael Gates also signed the letter, as well as Counselor to the Associate Attorney General Jason Manion. The investigation is expected to be led by Harmeet Dhillon, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, who is awaiting Senate confirmation.

I have not seen the underlying documents myself, but presumably there will be a public announcement by DOJ soon.

Hopefully DOJ also will announce an investigation of The Rhode Island Foundation, which helped create and fund the racist Providence Schools teacher loan forgiveness program.

Background:

• Providence (RI) Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program Only Open To Non-Whites Challenged By Legal Insurrection Foundation
• Black Community Activists Support Legal Insurrection’s Challenge To Providence School’s Anti-White Hiring Incentives
• Providence (RI) Schools Continue Anti-White New Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program As Investigation Moves To EEOC
• Rhode Island Foundation Stands By Funding Providence Teacher Hiring Program That Discriminates Against Whites
• The Rhode Island Foundation’s Discriminatory Grantmaking Warrants Civil Rights Investigation

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