NBC 10 I-Team: Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green defends frequent travel
Rhode Island's top schools boss racks up the miles crisscrossing the country, and beyond. She argues the frequent business travel reaps rewards.
Some of it is on the taxpayers’ dime. Some bills are paid by the hosts.
More than 30 out-of-state trips.
Twenty-seven by plane. Five by train.
That's what Rhode Island Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green has logged since the start of last year, travelling to education conferences and meetings.
And some of the events are tied to the head of a consulting company that gained notoriety for its role in a state contract controversy.
“I'm always promoting what we're doing in Rhode Island,” Infante-Green told the NBC 10 I-Team in defense of her travel schedule.
Of her trips since the beginning of last year, 15 have been to Washington.
“D.C., it's where things are happening. We have to have a voice there,” Infante-Green told NBC 10 News.
She’s also flown to Texas, California and North Carolina three times each, Arizona twice, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis.
Even to Taiwan.
Plus five train trips to New York.
Infante-Green says of her travel, “I think I travel what's necessary to make sure Rhode Island is on the table in all the conversations. For the first time, we're being highlighted. We are national leaders, international leaders on chronic absenteeism.”
“Yeah, I travel to make sure that people know the wonderful things that are happening in Rhode Island. We're the smallest state and we need to shine and we can't do that if we're not at those conversations,” she contends.
The commissioner's office provided Infante-Green's travel log in response to a records request from NBC 10 for records from the start of 2024 to now, with a breakdown of who paid the expenses.
A little more than $16,000 has been paid by the Rhode Island Department of Education, the taxpayers. Event hosts have picked up nearly $26,000 in bills.
Asked by NBC 10 News what the taxpayers and the students get from her travel, Infante-Green responded, “Well, it's money well spent. Because, I will tell you, when they start talking about bringing grants or highlighting Rhode Island, we're front and center.”
Infante-Green is often a speaker or panelist at events.
She made four trips to meetings for both the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Assessment Governing Board.
She sits on the board of both.
Those organizations paid for her trips.
“I am not on anything that doesn't profit or benefit Rhode Island,” Infante-Green replied, when asked by NBC 10 News if her time is spread too thin by the boards she is on. “It is about elevating our position in the nation.”
What about beyond the nation?
Infante-Green spent last Thanksgiving week in Taiwan.
A Google search only shows their government highlighted the trip, which included an agreement to enhance foreign exchange following an already-established relationship with Rhode Island.
Taiwan paid more than $3,000 for her travel there.
Meanwhile, the state has split costs for Infante-Green to go to an annual conference in Charlotte last month and in April 2024 for Women Leading Education.
She's on the board of that organization, too.
“This is about women. If you see who was there, half of the state chiefs are there. My colleagues are there. All the women that are in education are there, sharing best practice, learning from one another, making sure that we are helping each other succeed,” Infante-Green says.
One of the leaders of that group is Julia Rafal-Baer.
Rafal-Baer is also a leader of the ILO Group, the education consulting company whose contract with the state four years ago came under scrutiny and led to tough questions for Gov. Dan McKee because of his connections to the deal.
Infante-Green was also on a panel moderated by Rafal-Baer at a major national conference that drew big names last month in Arizona.
And Infante-Green has traveled in the past to conferences for the organization Rafael-Baer was previously a leader of.
“I knew Julia before I got here,” Infante-Green said of the relationship.
Asked if she sees any conflict, Infante-Green responded, “I don't. We haven't had a contract and I don't think there's any contract with the state.”
Infante-Green kept up the travel schedule this week, in Washington again to speak to a Senate panel Tuesday and is scheduled to be at Harvard on Thursday and Friday for an education policy conference.
“I don't want to call it travelling, because it's work. For me, it's work. Not only am I working there but then I have to do the work that's expected of me here. I am always on the clock,” Infante-Green told NBC 10 News, summing up her schedule.
Infante-Green filed her state ethics travel disclosure on the deadline day in late April, the same day her office sent her travel records to NBC 10 News.
