The Colorado Education Association (CEA) passed a resolution declaring that “’Capitalism inherently exploits children, public schools, land, labor, and resources.” The resolution goes on to say that “Capitalism is in opposition to fully addressing systemic racism (the school to prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy, (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality, and income inequality.” Additionally, an earlier draft of the resolution called to replace capitalism with a “new equitable economic system.” The CEA is Colorado’s largest union, comprising over 39,000 education workers.
FOX NEWS: Colorado teachers union passes resolution declaring capitalism ‘inherently exploits children, public schools’
By Joshua Q. Nelson; May 4, 2023
The Colorado Education Association [CEA] reportedly passed a resolution that declares that “capitalism inherently exploits children, public schools, land, labor, and resources.”
A final version of the resolution that was passed states that “CEA believes that capitalism requires exploitation of children, public schools, land, labor, and/or resources. Capitalism is in opposition to fully addressing systemic racism (the school to prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy, (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality, and income inequality.
However, a screenshot captures an earlier draft of the resolution that included a call to replace capitalism with a “new equitable economic system.”
The screenshot of the original version of the resolutions reads “CEA believes that capitalism requires exploitation of children, public schools, land, labor, and/or resources and, therefore, the only way to fully address systemic racism (the school to prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality, and income inequality is to dismantle capitalism and replace it with a new, equitable economic system.”
“We are constantly using band-aids and minor reforms to make things better, which is good, but the system itself is the problem, and it needs to be named,” a statement under the resolution reads.
A former federal official sent a screenshot of the original version to an outlet called The Lion, which obtained the document first. The Lion “sent the screenshot to Lauren Stephenson, director of communications at the CEA, who belatedly admitted to the original resolution. She sent the Lion the revised form of the resolution that passed the assembly.” The CEA had previously decided not to disclose the resolution, citing “process” and privacy concerns.
The screenshot of the original version was reportedly sent to a federal official by a disgruntled CEA member who walked out in disgust over the passage of the resolution.
The resolution was introduced by Bryan Lindstrom, a college history teacher.
After the final version of the resolution passed, Lindstrom retweeted a comment that said that the resolution “allows CEA members to publicly advocate and lobby for anti-capitalist policies at the CO Capitol.”
The CEA nor Lindstrom immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
This resolution follows the trend of teacher unions pushing a far-left ideology. The president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the nation, declared that racial and social justice is a “pillar” of the NEA’s efforts.
“For us at the NEA, education justice must be about racial justice, it must be about social justice, it must be about climate justice. It must be about all of those things,” president Becky Pringle said. “For our students to be able to come to school ready to learn every day–We can never think of education as an isolated system because everything connects to our students’ ability to learn. So, we have to necessarily talk about housing justice, food inequality, and the reality that we all just went through a global pandemic together and of course it was the most marginalized communities that were already suffering from the inequities in every single social system in this country and every country.”
Students and schools are still reeling from the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. The learning loss was revealed through the most recent results of the national test scores that show sharp declines in math and reading.
Math scores saw their largest decreases ever, while reading scores dropped to levels not seen since 1992 for fourth and eighth graders across the country, according to the Nation’s Report Card. The average mathematics score for fourth-grade students fell five points from 2019 to 2022. The score for eighth-graders dropped eight points. Reading for both grades fell three points since 2019.
Math scores were worst among eighth graders, with 38% earning scores deemed “below basic” — a cutoff that measures, for example, whether students can find the third angle of a triangle if they’re given the other two. That’s worse than 2019, when 31% of eighth graders scored below that level.
Reacting to the national test scores, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the statistics are a sign that schools need to redouble their efforts, using billions of dollars that Congress gave schools in response to the pandemic to help students recover.
“Let me be very clear: these results are not acceptable,” Cardona said.