On Friday, May 19, the Green Party of Colorado ratified the Denver Green Party’s endorsement of Julie Bañuelos for School Board Director (at-large) of School District No. 1, also known as the Denver Public Schools.
Julie and her nephew, Iker.
She is a recent former certified public school teacher and union leader, both as a site representative (equivalent to “shop steward”) and as a member for the Denver Classroom Teacher’s Association board of directors. She spent 15+ years in the classroom in predominantly low-income schools. She is also a certified Montessori teacher, and she holds a degree in Economics and Latin American Studies from Grinnell College in Iowa.
The Green Party of Colorado encourages registered Greens and progressive allies to support the Bañuelos campaign, regardless of geographic area, because the Denver Public Schools’ model of privatization and school closures of the most vulnerable communities in the city has become emulated by other neoliberal policymakers around the country. Denver has been the test tube for the worst of the market-based, Friedmanite philosophies regarding our public commons. Because the New Orleans school district has become entirely charter school-run, paying attention to this race, an outcome that Naomi Klein has termed “disaster capitalism,” is an imperative that Greens and allies should not ignore.
From the platform of the Green Party of the United States:
The Green Party is strongly opposed to the dissolution of public schools and the privatization of education. We believe that the best educational experience is guaranteed by the democratic empowerment of organized students, their parents and communities along with organized teachers.
We must stop disinvestment in education and instead put it at the top of our social and economic agenda. Effective schools have sufficient resources. Too many of our teachers are overworked, underpaid, and starved of key materials. We also must be more generous to our schools so that our children will learn what generosity is, and know enough to be able to be generous to us in return.
Greens believe in education, not indoctrination. We do not think that schools should turn our children into servile students, employees, consumers or citizens. We believe it is very important to teach our children how to ask good questions.
Julie is firmly in favor of the collective bargaining rights of workers, staunchly against school privatization, and is calling for a moratorium on new charters. She is also calling for the removal of police officers from our schools and replacing them with fully-funded restorative justice programs.
Learn more about Julie at her website, and please consider donating even just a few dollars, volunteering even from afar, and signing up for her email newsletter.
Julie Bañuelos for Denver school board, at-large
www.banuelos4education.org
Facebook: facebook.com/banuelosforeducation
Twitter: twitter.com/banuelos4Ed
Instagram: @banuelos4Ed
Contact: (303) 900-8912 | feedback@banuelos4education.org
