Concerned parent says program is teaching ‘college students to use children as political tools’

Rhode Island College’s Youth Development program is facing criticism for teaching a social justice activism agenda, including a class on “anti-racist” practices.

However, the public college has not responded to multiple requests for comment about the program and the criticism it is facing.

Parental rights advocate Nicole Solas, a Rhode Island mother who was sued by a teacher’s union after asking to see her daughter’s kindergarten curriculum, recently called out the college’s degree program on X.

Solas believes the college should lose its federal funding as a result of the program, which she described as “the professional indoctrination of kids.”

“Rhode Island College is a public college doling out fake ‘masters degrees’ in political indoctrination of children, which is diametrically opposed to the priorities of the Trump administration’s @usdoegov…” she wrote.

In an interview Monday with The College Fix, Solas said the so-called “‘youth development’ curriculum is not education – it is a child activist indoctrination program pipelining college students to a progressive patronage network of non-profits.”

“This ‘youth development’ program is ultimately a political movement operating under the guise of ‘higher education,’ where children in school and after-school programs are used as tools for progressive political action,” she said in an email.

“For example, in the YDEV 353 Field Experience in Youth Development, students ‘complete 15-30 hours of fieldwork within an organization that serves children and/or youth,’” she said.

Students who complete the program may go on to have careers as a “Childcare Worker,” “Youth Minister,” “Camp Director,” or “Social Service Manager,” the college’s website states.

However, Solas said the college is really training students to become political activists.

“Using children for political activism does not serve children – it serves only the interests of the adults using them,” she said.

“Likewise, training college students to use children as political tools is not higher education. It’s a political grift co-opting public money earmarked for legitimate academic pursuits,” Solas told The Fix. “As a taxpayer, I should not be forced to fund my political opposition under the cover of ‘higher education.’”

According to the college, the Youth Development program is designed for “individuals working within youth development and/or youth-oriented social service organizations.” Classes will “equip” students with “skills … to lead, design, research and innovate in youth settings,” according to its website.

The program, which offers both bachelor’s and master’s degrees under RIC’s Department of Educational Studies, includes learning outcomes such as “Advocacy & Social Justice,” according to the master’s program webpage.

“Explore programming and policy through the lenses of power and difference in order to better understand how to build, sustain and lead positive communities with youth,” the learning outcome description reads.

The first courses specific to the Youth Development program were introduced for the 2014-2015 school year, according to The Fix’s review of past course catalogues. For 2017-2018, the program added an introductory course. The master’s degree was introduced for the 2019-2020 school year, and 10 more courses were created, The Fix found.

Courses for the 2024-2025 academic year included “Youth Development Community Retreat,” which teaches students to “develop skills and frameworks for community building and anti-racist youth development practice.”

Another RIC course, “Youth Development Community Retreat,” focuses on “anti-racist youth development practice.”

A DEI cult training seminar on anti-racist indoctrination of Rhode Island children. 4/6 pic.twitter.com/YHmy1zhTE7

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— Nicole Solas, Sued by the Teachers Union (@Nicoletta0602) April 10, 2025

“Youth Social Policy and Action” is another course in the program in which students “will explore connections between policy and the lives of young people, focusing on how youth have engaged activist tools to develop, impact and reform public policy.”

For the course, students must be concurrently enrolled in “Youth Social Policy In The Field,” where they “work with a local [Youth Development] organization to understand their policy/activist agenda and collaborate on a youth social policy research project.”

The Fix emailed Victoria Restler and Leslie Bogad, professors and directors for the Youth Development program, as well as program Coordinator Rachel Clemons, multiple times for comment about the program and the criticisms it is facing. None responded.

The Fix also contacted college spokesperson John Taraborelli and the media relations office by phone and email several times over the past two weeks to ask about the program, but neither responded.

However, Jonathan Butcher, senior fellow in education policy at the Heritage Foundation, expressed criticism similar to Solas’s in a recent interview with The Fix. 

Butcher described the Youth Development degree as “another grievance studies-style program that is commonly found at institutions nationwide.”

“The program description uses the radical buzzwords that have ambiguous definitions such as ‘social justice’ and ‘culturally relevant,’ which point back to critical theory, the Marxist philosophy that calls for repeated cycles of revolution against existing social and political structures,” he said.

“This program is particularly troubling because it is a training program for young people, teaching these hollow ideas to teens and youth,” he said.

“State lawmakers should defund programs such as this that focuses on racial favoritism and review the school’s alignment with state and federal civil rights laws,” Butcher said.

MORE: Florida university offers ‘hip-hop’ course on ‘black ratchet imagination’

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: The course description for a Youth Development course overlays a photo of the Rhode Island College campus. Rhode Island College

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