PROVIDENCE – How long does it take to translate good ideas into a plan of action? For instance, last week the R.I. House of Representatives passed the proposed legislation, “The Civic Literacy Act,” H 5028, to require students to achieve proficiency in civics education before high school graduation. The proposed bill still needs to pass the R.I. Senate and then be signed into law by the Governor.

The new legislation follows an unsuccessful federal class action lawsuit brought by Rhode Island Center for Justice, filed on Nov. 28, 2018, claiming that all public school students in Rhode Island were being denied their Constitutional rights to a civics education. The new law, if enacted, would create the necessary legal mandate.

Ironically, the lawsuit had been strenuously opposed in court by former Gov. Gina Raimondo’s legal team, who had argued that there was no legal mandate to introduce civics education in Rhode Island. Her chosen R.I. Education Commissioner, Angélica Infante-Green, was busily promoting her vision of education reform – apparently without any discussion of a civics curriculum.

As ConvergenceRI reported in December of 2019, covering a meeting of education stakeholders convened at The R.I. Convention Center by the Rhode Island Foundation, at which Infante-Green posed for numerous selfies with attendees in front of big letter sculpture that said “Promise”: “One topic not on the agenda was the current lawsuit being brought in U.S. Federal District Court in Rhode Island to establish a constitutional right for students to receive a civics education.


The story continued: “As Chanda Womack, who describes herself as a optimist, feminist, reader, observer, learner and educator, tweeted during the event: “Dearest @RIFoundation, your vision cannot be achieved without an adequate civics education. Charting a meaningful course requires systems/institutional change. This requires you, largest foundation in RI to support Cook v. Raimondo.” [See link below to ConvergenceRI story, “Making it happen in RI.”]

Would you find it surprising, then, to learn that the idea of creating a civics curriculum in Rhode Island had been suggested as part of the winning essay in a contest sponsored by Red Alert in 1992, nearly 30 years ago?

The late John Hazen White, Sr., the owner of Taco Industries, the nominal head of an upstart citizens organization, Red Alert, attempting to spur a rebellion against the status quo of seemingly endless corruption in Rhode Island, had put out a challenge, an essay contest, with a $5,000 reward.

Hazen White posed five questions, one of which was: “What can be done to improve ethics in Rhode Island?

The winning answer began: “Teaching right and wrong to school children needs to be an important part of Rhode Island’s school curriculum. The state government should research, design and implement an “Ethics and Community Service” curriculum for Grades 4-12.”

It was the second part of that answer, however, that was singled out and chosen as being the winning response by the judges, who included: Darrell M. West, James Hagan, Ross Cheit, Bruce Lang, Lila Sapinsley, and Gary Sasse.

It read: The best way to enhance ethical behavior by Rhode Island public officials is to have independent, watchdog agencies looking out for the public good. The funding of these agencies cannot be part of the legislative process. Nor should these agencies operate under the aegis of the legislative or executive branch of government.

• Inspector General. He/she oversees all state contracts worth more than $10,000. Person in that position is appointed by the R.I. Supreme Court for a six-year term. Position is independent, but operates under the aegis of the R.I. Supreme Court. Funding for the office is financed by a 1 percent service fee from all contracts with vendors doing business with the state. No contract more than $10,000 can be finalized without approval of inspector general.

• Independent Special Prosecutor. He/ she will be appointed by the R.I. Supreme Court for a six-year term. Person in that position shall be charged with investigation of corruption by Rhode Island public officials. Funding for the office is financed by a trust fund established as part of a mandatory “Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts” fund.

I am quite familiar with the answers, even if they were written three decades ago, because I wrote them – and won the prize.

Stirring up all memories
Given all the massive loss and trauma we have endured as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the desire to re-imagine our world in a positive reframe is a powerful force exerted on our collective psyche.

This week, we will celebrate the 51st anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, a celebration given new urgency by the climate crisis that afflicts all of us living on the planet. The hard part, it seems, is always moving beyond platitudes and turning words into action, which will involve challenging our perverse relationship with the fossil fuel industry and pursuing climate justice through a racial equity lens.

In last week’s ConvergenceRI interview with Neil Steinberg, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, and his plans to enlist a steering committee to develop a few really big ideas to invest in, targeting the state’s approximately $1 billion in discretionary money coming to Rhode Island from the federal American Rescue Plan, memories of the winning submission were stirred up. [See link below to ConvergenceRI story, “Looking for a few big ideas for how RI should invest $1 billion.”]

[At the time, I had something less than my 15 minutes of fame: my answers were published in the Nov. 8, 1992, edition of The Providence Journal. I got a phone call at 7:30 a.m. the next day from the morning drive radio jocks at WHJY, who were befuddled by my answer as I tried to explain about the need for an inspector general. I was also interviewed by the New England Cable News.]

In the last two editions, ConvergenceRI had also run a two-part series about Child Opportunity Zones, written by Rick Schwartz, that uncovered what had happened to an initiative launched in 1994 to develop wrap-around services to support schoolchildren and their families. For all the focus on public education reform and the state takeover of the Providence public schools, what was most remarkable about the story was how little of the history of what happened with COZs had been retained by the funders, including the R.I. Department of Education, United Way of Rhode Island, and the Rhode Island Foundation.

Back to the future
The current news cycle we endure seems to overwhelm us with breaking news, always alarming, always sensational, making it difficult to focus on developing long-term solutions to anything.

With that in mind, here is the winning submission, written in the fall of 1992, annotated, with the hope that it may spur further discussion about what is possible for Rhode Island to invest in.

1. What can be done to retain present jobs and create new ones?
To create a stable job base in Rhode Island, the state must work with defense industries to speed conversion to a peacetime economy. The major focus of this conversion must be the environment. Here are three possible initiatives:

• We need to construct sewage treatment plants and holding tanks to prevent rain overflow of raw sewage into Narragansett Bay. There are no federal funds to do this work. Instead of hiring out-of-state firms, the state should challenge defense contractors such as Textron, Raytheon and Electric Boat to develop this industry here in Rhode Island. Market potential in the U.S. and around the world is enormous.

[Editor’s Note: The Narragansett Bay Commission has undertaken much of this work in three phases.]

• Begin the planning, design and construction of a high-speed rail system. As we enter the 21st century, mass transit will become vital to the region’s economic structure.

• Defense industries should be challenged [and given tax incentives] to manufacture a state-of-the-art solar hot-water system. There are about 190,000 single-family homes in Rhode Island. To put a high-tech solar hot water panel system on each one would cost a total of $2 billion – about what it costs to build 1.25 Seawolf submarines.

As an incentive to buyers, the state can offer a rebate of 10 percent – or $1,000 per system – to every horneowner. It can also offer a tax deduction of 15 percent of the cost for a five-year period.

Such an initiative will create the need for an army of skilled workers – plumbers, electricians, glazers, carpenters – to do the installations. It will also lower electricity costs and lessen the need for new generating capacity, which will save utilities capital expenditures and consumers cash.

[Editor’s Note: Such a system could be expanded to include solar electric panels and rain water barrels. The system could be financed through a state solar infrastructure bank, with homeowners able to apply for no-interest loans, to be repaid when the homeowners sold the property. The solar hot water panels would cut down on reliance of oil and gas furnaces to produce hot water; the photovoltaic systems could cut down on the need for new generating capacity and reduce peak capacity; and the rain barrels, controlled by the photovoltaics, would reduce the demand for water use, given the current climate crisis.]

2. What can be done by state government to improve the quality of life in Rhode Island and Rhode Island’s social fiber?
Violence against women and children is a major reason why Rhode Island’s social fiber is unraveling. The leading cause of injury to women in America is battering from domestic violence, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. In Rhode Island an average of 22 women a day are treated in emergency rooms for injuries received from physical abuse. A 1992 study of emergency shelters found that domestic violence is one of the three major causes of homelessness in Rhode Island. And last year alone, there were 9,000 reports of child abuse investigated by authorities in Rhode Island.

Ending violence against women and children means changing our cultural norms, a gargantuan task. But Rhode Island’s state government can play a leadership role:

• Create a law enforcement task force on domestic violence to speed arrest and prosecution of batterers and child abusers.

• Write into law a mandatory computer check of criminal and parole records by the courts of any alleged abuser who has been arrested before he is released.

• Expand financial support for existing domestic violence shelters for women and children.

• Expand resources of community mental health centers to counsel victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

• Underwrite an education campaign in the schools to teach children that violence against women is not acceptable.

• Train local police on how to respond to domestic violence.

3. How should the state government provide for its financial needs?
The social contract of a government providing benefits and services in return for tax dollars is a fundamental precept of democratic government, and I would not suggest changing that.

I believe the question that needs to be asked is: How should the state government create new sources of revenue to maintain existing benefits and services for its citizens as the federal contribution lessens and the costs increase?

Here are some suggestions:
• To fund educational needs in Rhode Island, create a 10-cent tax on the rental of all videotapes. [Editor’s Note: Wow, is this out of date; it could be tied to all online gambling purchases today.]

• To fund law enforcement needs in Rhode Island, increase the penalty for drunk driving to a $10,000 fine AND forfeiture of the vehicle being driven. This would serve as a major deterrent to drunk drivers and an incentive to police and the courts to enforce the law.

• To fund legal needs of the poor in Rhode Island, enact a mandatory Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts program.

• To fund environmental protection in Rhode Island, fine firms which dump untreated toxic chemicals into the sewer system $10,000 a day. [As a carrot to this stick, offer 50 percent of the cost of building a pre-treatment facility in tax credits.]

• To fund affordable housing in Rhode Island, levy a .5 percent tax on all real estate transfers of more than $100,000. The money will be held in a trust fund administered by LISC.

4. What should be done to improve the organization and effectiveness of government?
Passage of Question 1 on the 1992 ballot will go a long way towards improving the organization and effectiveness of government. Four-year terms and voter recall are two major steps forward.

But the sad truth is that government does not attract our state’s “best and brightest” citizens.

To improve government, we need to increase the participation of people in the process of government.

Here are some suggestions:

• Increase the salary of legislators to a living wage [what legislators in Massachusetts make] so that they can be full-time legislators. With the higher wage, they are less tempted to sell their soul to lobbyists because they are more secure financially.

• Force legislators to make public any favors from registered lobbyists – dinners. tickets, nights out, etc.

• Prevent legislators from accepting any PAC money.

• Require television and radio stations to run a minimum number of free advertisements for each candidate for statewide office from a political party which received more than 10 percent of the vote in the last statewide election.

Reflections
The two big areas missing from this discussion of ideas to improve the quality of life in Rhode Island are investments in gun violence prevention and racial equity. A third area is the growth of dark money in politics, following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United. Perhaps a fourth area would be the growing trend to use private consultants to design and implement public policy decisions, without accountability.

What the coronavirus pandemic has taught us, hopefully, is how much public health underpins economic prosperity, and how we need to invest in community-driven, bottom-up innovation focused on neighborhoods and a sense of place, always through a racial equity lens. The corollary, of course, is also true: most top-down, corporate-driven innovations do not work.

A sixth area of concern would be how we have entered what author Shoshanna Zuboff has described as “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism,” and the way that corporate algorithms are mining our personal behaviors to influence choices in our political and personal world.