On April 22, the delegate assembly of the Colorado Education Association – which claims to represent teachers from across the state – approved a brazen, extreme resolution condemning capitalism for “inherently exploit(ing) children, public schools, land, labor, and resources.” They also blamed capitalism for systemic racism, climate change, patriarchy, education inequality and income inequality.

When asked by Colorado Politics to explain CEA’s position, President Amie Baca-Oehlert deflected, asserting in a statement the broad resolution simply “related to economic disparities that some of our students, public schools, and communities face and that many educators deal with every day.”

Baca-Oehlert claimed the resolution is being “seized on” by “anti-public school forces” to “distract us from the real issues facing our students.” And she brushed it off as a reflection of “our members’ aspirations in our collective endeavor to create a safer and more equitable world… and do not require any action from the organization.”

Nonsense.

In a hyper-partisan time in American politics and education, Colorado’s teachers unions try to claim they aren’t political actors, even though they consistently act ideologically. Then, when the annual CEA conference gets caught explicitly approving a genuinely extreme resolution, they dodge criticism – claiming the issue is a “distraction” and call the resolution “aspirational.”

Really?

The first person to call attention to the resolution was radical union member Tim Hernández, who proudly tweeted about it on April 22. “CEA may now publicly advocate & lobby for anti-capitalist policies at the CO Capitol,” Hernández declared.

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That sounds an awful lot like an expectation that the statement is a call to action – an expectation backed by the resolution’s sponsor, Brian Lindstrom, a just-announced candidate for House District 36 and self-described “anarcho-socialist.” In his “reason for submitting” the resolution, Lindstrom explained, “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.”

The CEA resolution clearly exposes the teachers union’s “collective” wish to eradicate capitalism. The union took a hard-line, radical position. No one forced them to do it.

There’s no spinning this one. If anyone is distracting from “the real issues facing our students,” it’s Colorado’s teachers unions – who took it upon themselves to approve this extremism through their state delegates.

As Brenda Dickhoner, president and CEO of Ready Colorado, told CoPo, “with a majority of our students not reading, writing or doing math at grade level, we would urge the CEA to focus on improving student outcomes instead of dismantling an economic system that promotes human prosperity and innovation.”

She’s right.

Let’s be clear: CEA’s critics – myself among them – are merely calling out the CEA for its radicalism. Yet union leadership is so tone-deaf, out-of-touch and far-gone they can’t even acknowledge the legitimacy of our pointed critiques.

But if you think about it, the whole thing makes sense. As I pointed out in The Federalist last week, the resolution isn’t just a political statement about their “collective” views on capitalism. Rather, it affirms the anti-free-market mindset of the teachers unions, which oppose charter schools and school choice writ-large.

“Any model exposing their failures is a threat,” I wrote. “Capitalistic competition is deemed unacceptable to teachers unions because they simply aren’t about the kids. As longtime union boss Albert Shanker infamously said, ‘When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.'”

The union is already backing up its words with deeds. I’ve previously exposed the coordinated teachers union efforts to undermine school choice and education reform in Woodland Park, Colorado. I recently detailed how teachers unions are operating in Woodland Park, Jefferson County and Denver in ways that further prove precisely where they’re coming from and what their goals really are.

Here’s the thing: The recent endeavors of the CEA and its affiliates across the state all come down to the very ideology espoused in Lindstrom’s radical resolution. They’re inextricably linked. Baca-Oehlert’s vain attempt to separate the two is as outlandish as the resolution itself.

It’s also worth mentioning that the teachers unions do not necessarily reflect the beliefs – or even represent the interests of – their members. As I argued way back in October of 2021, the teachers unions have utterly failed Colorado’s educators.

The fact that the CEA’s representatives at the 97th Annual Delegate Assembly would approve such an extreme statement condemning capitalism – the very economic system through which education is funded – only further proves the case. Teachers deserved much better from the union coming out of the pandemic – and they continue to deserve better now.

More importantly, Colorado’s kids deserve so much better. They deserve institutions focused on closing learning gaps and improving academic outcomes, not distracted by extremism. It’s really not that hard to understand.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and host of “The Jimmy Sengenberger Show” Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on News/Talk 710 KNUS. Reach Jimmy online at JimmySengenberger.com or on Twitter @SengCenter.