Buena Vista School Board Takes “Capitalist” Position Against Colorado Education Association, Which Responds that “Anti-Public School Forces” are at Work
After the Buena Vista Board of Education passed a resolution condemning a statement by the Colorado Education Association (CEA) and used that statement as a reason to refuse to officially recognize the Buena Vista Education Association (BVEA), AVV reached out to the CEA to clarify their position.
CEA logo courtesy of ColoradoEA.org
The CEA responded with a statement explaining that the resolution was one of many passed during the 97th Annual Delegate Assembly, but that many “anti-public school forces” have seized on this one resolution as a distraction from real issues facing students.
“Political opponents who want to defund public schools are now attacking CEA for a resolution introduced by a member at our 97th Annual Delegate Assembly in April. This is a space where elected member educators adopt resolutions – belief statements for the organization – similar to election year Republican or Democratic party platforms.”
“Recognizing that our members reflect our state’s diverse views and perspectives, these resolutions reflect our members’ aspirations in our collective endeavor to create a safer and more equitable world for Colorado’s students, educators, and communities, and do not require any action from the organization,” the statement reads. This aligns with BVEA’s statement that the resolution does not compel action on the part of their organization either.
Below is CEA’s full statement on the matter:
“The Colorado Education Association and our 39,000 members are committed to delivering an exceptional public education to every child, regardless of where they live, what they look like, or how much their families earn. We are focused on real issues plaguing public education, like the chronic underfunding of our schools, accessible housing, mental health supports, and safe classrooms for students and educators alike.
While teaching them how to read or solve quadratic equations, our educators work with students who don’t know where they’re going to sleep at night, or if they’re going to have food at home, or how they will support family members who are struggling. Educating students dealing with crisis and trauma is extremely difficult, but our educators show up every day to do just that, regardless of the many challenges in their schools and among their students.
Political opponents who want to defund public schools are now attacking CEA for a resolution introduced by a member at our 97th Annual Delegate Assembly in April. This is a space where elected member educators adopt resolutions – belief statements for the organization – similar to election year Republican or Democratic party platforms. Recognizing that our members reflect our state’s diverse views and perspectives, these resolutions reflect our members’ aspirations in our collective endeavor to create a safer and more equitable world for Colorado’s students, educators, and communities, and do not require any action from the organization.
Resolutions passed during the 97th Annual Delegate Assembly focused on school safety, mental health support, collective bargaining, and academic standards. Another resolution passed that was related to economic disparities that some of our students, public schools, communities face and that many educators deal with every day. The resolution in its final form states: “The CEA believes that capitalism inherently exploits children, public schools, land, labor, and 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.”
Anti-public school forces have intentionally seized on this one resolution to distract us from the real issues facing our students.
This year hundreds of CEA members spent their off-hours lobbying our legislators, emailing, texting and calling their representatives to make sure that the fixes their schools urgently need were prioritized. The CEA and its members have successfully helped to pass legislation that will actually advance teaching and learning in Colorado, bills that will:
● Increase public workers’ safety and employment rights,
● Give all students healthy meals, regardless of background
● Provide schools with more mental health professionals
● Increase stipends for student teachers so that they can live and work
● Increase the accessibility and availability of affordable housing
Distractions and political talking points will come and go, but Colorado’s educators’ focus is unwavering. We will continue to pursue the real, systemic challenges faced by our students, because no matter their color, background, or zip code, all students need and deserve an inclusive, safe, and honest education.”
Featured image: Buena Vista High School. Photo by Tara Flanagan.
Maybe this individual should live in Cuba, Venezuela or China to see exactly how that works. Why do we spend more than any country per student for poor results. The CEA all teachers unions keep blaming funding and now democracy? Shut up and teach.