CT Teachers Resist a Right-Wing Take-Over of Public Education

The national anti-racist watchdog organization People for the American Way (PFAW) has exposed a coordinated dark money campaign to fund local front groups' electoral activities. Their Right-Wing Watch project has uncovered attempts to recruit and ultimately back candidates for boards of education (BOE) across the country by campaigning against so-called "critical race theory" curricula.

Click here for more from PFAW on the race-based attempt to seize local school boards.

The campaign’s inflammatory rhetoric this summer stalled out locally with majorities of parents in most Connecticut communities rejecting the politics of division and hate. National funders have instead found fertile ground in the Nutmeg State among small but vocal minorities clinging to anti-science propaganda regarding COVID-19 safety protocols.

A local front group brought the issue to the boiling point at a “back-to-school” forum in Cheshire. State education department officials after just 30 minutes ended the event early following outbursts from a small crowd from the local "Unmask Our Kids CT" chapter.

"The highest duty of a board member is to ensure the safety and well-being of the district’s students and staff," said Jason Adler, Waterford Federation of Classroom Teachers' president. "Teaching and learning cannot occur in an unsafe environment."

Adler, a Clinton BOE member, added, "I have the pleasure of serving on a Board of Education that makes decisions based on the best interests of student learning and health. It pains me to witness friends and neighbors - good people - being sold a false narrative by shadowy figures who hope to benefit politically through strife."

"We must let science and safety continue to be our north star when it comes to the students and employees of our school systems," Adler concluded.

Union activists like Adler have once again stepped up in 2021 to run on the "labor is your neighbor" platform. They will be on the November 2 municipal election ballot in towns across Connecticut. The “labor is your neighbor” get out the vote program provides a path forward this fall to help protect schools from an extremist-funded power and defend educators' hard-fought gains and children’s future learning opportunities.

– Excerpted from “Inside AFT Connecticut”