Saturday, August 25, 2018

YDSA Urges Socialists to Infiltrate Public Education


By Robert Wenzel

Like I said, beware democratic socialists. They are running a very long Leninist game. This is not simple Pelosi/Schumer style cronyism.

Campus Reform reports:
The Young Democratic Socialists of America organization is urging socialists to “take jobs as teachers” in order to exploit the “political, economic, and social potential the industry holds.”

“Why Socialists Should Become Teachers,” an 11-page pamphlet crafted jointly by YDSA and the Democratic Socialist Labor Commission, contends that education is “a strategic industry to organize,” and offers prospective socialist educators “a basic
roadmap for how to get a job in education.

The pamphlet begins by outlining the “success” of the recent West Virginia teachers strike, which it attributes to “creative shop floor organizing” from teachers who believed in “socialist politics.”

“Our immediate win in West Virginia was a 5% raise for all public sector workers, plus halting charter school legislation and attacks on seniority,” the document boasts. “But crucially, our movement’s demand was that the money come from highly profitable corporations that have long exploited West Virginia’s natural wealth.”

While the funding debate has yet to be resolved, the pamphlet credits socialist agitators with pressing for corporate tax increases, saying most union leaders simply expect lawmakers to “figure out where the money comes from” after securing pay raises....

Acknowledging that there are other industries in which “workers are far more oppressed,” the document contends that education is nonetheless a “strategic” sector because it is so pervasive and heavily unionized that it can impact the “political and economic demands for the working class as a whole.”

In addition, it argues that teachers can leverage their relationships with students and their families to engage in “campaigns around police brutality, immigrant rights, and environmental justice.”

After briefly outlining some personal and professional reasons that socialists should consider a career in teaching, the pamphlet turns its attention to the question of “How to Become a Teacher,” stating that while there are certain “barriers” to entering the profession, these can be “overcome.”

Although teachers have traditionally pursued a “standard” certification through a bachelor’s or master’s degree in education, for instance, the document notes that “as teaching has become increasingly deprofessionalized in the past twenty years or so, ‘accelerated’ teacher preparation programs have spread,” enabling those with “a generic bachelor’s degree” to “enter the classroom with little to no teaching experience under a ‘transitional’ certification.”

For those who might be reluctant to engage directly in teaching, the handbook suggests non-teacher positions that are often represented by education unions, such as “school secretaries, guidance counselors, psychologists, speech therapists, parent coordinators, and special education support staff.”

“There is a growing national network of educators in DSA working to transform our schools, our unions, and our society,” the section concludes. “Being a member of DSA means there is a pre-existing network of fellow socialists you can tap for support as you undertake this work.”
The pamphlet also adds:
We are finding that where there is a “militant minority” of socialists and other unionists with an orientation toward class struggle, opportunities exist to move tens of thousands by organizing militant union caucuses and bringing their co-workers into escalating campaigns that included strikes and mass action of thousands of workers, teachers, like their brothers and sisters in private industry, were able to win major gains in salary...
Teaching is proving to be one viable way for socialists to get into the labor movement not only to win concessions from the millionaire and billionaire class, but can also set a powerful example for the entire working class to follow.
Do not make the mistake and think that democratic socialists are just a group of welfare state extremists. Their goals are much broader and much more dangerous to the free market and free society structures.

Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher of
EconomicPolicyJournal.com and Target Liberty.

More about Wenzel here.

5 comments:

  1. Good luck convincing Socialists to work

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  2. Michigan Professional Educator’s Code of Ethics

    It is stated in the Revised School Code Act 451 of 1976 that a teaching certificate is valid only if the following oath or affirmation: is signed, notarized, and a copy filed with the superintendent of schools of the school district in which the teacher expects to teach.

    “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution of the United States of America and the constitution of the state of Michigan and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of teacher according to the best of my ability.”


    Socialists necessarily intend to violate this oath if they become teachers. So do most unionized government employees.

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  3. This must be a photo from the 1930s, when socialists began infiltrating the schools in a big way. 80 years of socialist indoctrination has produced the social justice cupcake generation.

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  4. The modern government operated "public" schools have been on the Prussian model for about a century now. It took many decades for that to take over fully from the mid 19th century with Horace Mann to 1920s but by the 1920s there wasn't a traditional american public school remaining. The schools were statist. By the 1980s practically all non-left staist teachers were gone.

    I am not sure what remains for socialists to achieve in the schools, they have been conditioning children to socialism for a very long time now. Maybe it is about doing it openly now?

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  5. Ummm... didn't the Socialists take over Public education a while ago?

    ReplyDelete