Democratic Socialists of America have quietly gained leadership positions in K-12 education to push anti-capitalist and anti-Israel views to young children across the US, according to a parents’ rights watchdog group.
Parents Defending Education, a grassroots organization advocating non-political school “recovery,” has identified dozens of DSA members who have landed or are seeking top board and teacher union positions in at least 15 states – from California to Kentucky and from New York to Texas.
“The Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, has long had a goal of using the K-12 system as a way to preach to a captive audience of other people’s children,” Parent Education outreach director Erika Sanzi told The Post.
“Their anti-Jewish and anti-Israel message in the K-12 context is nothing new but many more people have become aware of it since October 7,” he added. “DSA is poison in schools.”
DSA promotes a pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square on October 8 in New York. A protester was seen displaying a swastika on their phone. Twitter/@StuartMeissner
DSA rose to prominence after encouraging a hate-filled pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square the day after Hamas’ October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed an estimated 1,200 people — including 33 Americans.
The demonstration featured protesters burning and stomping on Israeli flags and at least one flashed an image of a swastika on a phone to taunt counter-demonstrators who support the Jewish state.
Socialism in the school hall
Over the past decade, at least 26 DSA members have either won or sought school board positions — and at least six of them have held leadership positions, according to Parents Defending Education, which notes that the list is not “exhaustive.”
One such example is in Republican-leaning Suffolk County, where Colin Palmer served as board president for the Riverhead Central School District.
“[DSA members] support the dismantling of capitalism, push for a Green New Deal, fund law enforcement, implement critical race theory, and support minors undergoing gender surgery without their parents’ consent. Their goal is to push this topic on children as young as 5 years old,” the report said.
One DSA member, Milwaukee Public School board official Missy Zombor, posted the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” on October 22 this year, according to a screenshot of his X account included in the report.
A screenshot of a Milwaukee Public Schools board member aligned with DSA. Parents Defending Education
The slogan is widely understood as a call to destroy the state of Israel and its people.
“I want to make it clear that I condemn violence and genocide. I condemn all forms of antisemitism and Islamophobia,” Zombor told The Post Tuesday. “I mourn the tens of thousands of innocent lives lost in this horrible war. I believe that both Palestinians and Israelis have the right to live freely ‘from the river to the sea’ and my statement comes from deep concern about the deadly humanitarian crisis that threatens the lives of civilians in the region –– especially children .”
In Los Angeles, at least two DSA members are on the board of the Unified School District, including Jackie Goldberg, its president. At least two more are vying for the seat in next year’s election.
The local chapter of DSA passed a resolution calling for a “Green New Deal for LA Public Schools” in 2021 and increased it again the following year.
“We have the opportunity to join the national DSA campaign to advance anti-capitalist demands for green investment in public education; reform schools to create healthy learning environments, call on LAUSD and other district institutions to create pressure for green energy, and create green union jobs in the process,” the resolution said.
Public education is quickly emerging as the front line in the culture wars. Aliksandr Siamko – stock.adobe.com
The influence of DSA in the teachers’ union
Additionally, the report found at least seven major teachers’ unions that either have some links or key members who have worked with the DSA.
In Colorado, teacher and DSA member Bryan Lindstrom submitted a resolution to the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest educators’ union.
The resolution proposes that the CEA affirm “that capitalism requires the exploitation of children” and states that ways to “fully address systemic racism (the school-to-prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy (gender and LGBTQ disparities), educational inequality, and income inequality is to dismantle capitalism and replace it with a new, equitable economic system.”
The resolution was passed with slightly modified language, but still stated that “capitalism inherently exploits children, public schools, land, labor and resources” and “is opposed to fully addressing systemic racism … climate change … patriarchy .. .educational inequality and income inequality.”
I’ll go on the record now: At the end of the day, it’s just my students and I in our classroom and we’re going to discuss race, class and gender in my history class, regardless of what laws and policies people want to pass. Critical race theory is a component of everything I do
— Bryan Lindstrom for CO HD36 (@Bryan4Colorado) June 11, 2021
In June 2021, Lindstrom caused a conservative uproar over the teaching of critical race theory, calling it “the new Red Scare” and vowing to support such teaching in his classroom.
“I’m going on record now,” he wrote. “At the end of the day, it’s just my students and I in the classroom and we’re going to discuss race, class and gender in my history class, regardless of what laws and policies people want to pass. Critical race theory is a component of everything I do.”
“They are [the DSA] have very deliberately cooperated with the teachers’ union and worked to get into the school hall and into the classroom and then they exploited this position to push political and even radical content on the students,” said Sanzi.
Parents Defending Education is concerned that if DSA is not challenged, socialists will dramatically influence the US political system. Focus Art – stock.adobe.com
Young socialist
Adults aren’t the only ones who receive DSA. The group’s youth activist branch, the Young Democratic Socialists of America, runs student clubs that are active or active in at least a dozen school districts across the country, according to the report.
The YDSA pushes for various leftist objectives such as divesting schools of fossil fuels, defending “immigrants through campaigns for sheltered campuses,” labor activism and more.
DSA plans to continue its K-12 efforts
In August, during the 2023 DSA convention, its parent body floated a resolution calling for more DSA candidates to run for school board positions.
“The teacher movement is the tip of the spear of a revitalized labor movement and school board races are a clear way to build relationships with teacher unions by showing ourselves as the strongest fighters for teachers and quality public education for all,” the resolution said. , which emphasizes support for “trans and queer rights, and for defending democracy” as well as opposing “right-wing and neoliberal attacks on public schools.”
A DSA spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Post also tried to reach more than a dozen groups and individuals named in the report, but either did not receive a response or the recipient declined to comment.
A new Parent Defense Education report on DSA penetration for K-12 schools comes as the House Committee on Education and the Workforce increases scrutiny of higher education institutions
Republicans on the panel recently announced an investigation into antisemitism on campus and have teased that deeper reforms to postsecondary education are in the works.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
