CHAVEZ FOR BVSD
Jorge Chavez is extremely qualified to be on the BVSD School Board. He has been volunteering with the district in various capacities for years. He completed his second year as chair of the District Accountability Committee. In that role he advised the school district on issues such as budget, policy, diversity, equity and inclusion, school safety and climate, and long-term planning. He is a member of the Latino Parent Advisory Council and advises the superintendent and Board of Education on the need to increase access to and expand the scope of bilingual education in BVSD, disproportionalities in academic achievement, access to advanced coursework, school discipline, special education and translation services.
Jorge is in a position to advise on these issues because he is an expert on education and equity. He is an associate professor at the University of Colorado Denver in the School of Education and Human Development. His research focuses on topics such as racial/ethnic inequalities in the transition to adulthood and the effect of educational and local policy on immigrants and immigrant families.
Obviously, Jorge is a busy person, but I still see him every Tuesday afternoon as he volunteers as a coach for the running club at the school that both his children and my son attend. The running club is the only truly equitable club at our kids’ school. It is free for all families, no transportation or special equipment necessary. Giving his time for this club, on top of all the other things that Jorge does, shows that Jorge is a person who lives his values. He is the kind of leader our school district needs.
We live in a time where school districts across the country are being targeted by conservative groups. We are not immune in Boulder County. As Claire Woodcock wrote in Boulder Weekly in February 2023, Moms For Liberty is now operating here. A vote for Jorge is not only a vote for a highly qualified candidate, it is also a vote that protects all kids in our district regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation, because Jorge is committed to equity for all students.
— Kate Christensen / Lafayette
RE: ANDERSON FILES, ‘LABOR UPSURGE PROMOTES DEMOCRACY’
Dave Anderson’s column last week (Anderson Files, ‘Labor upsurge promotes democracy and prosperity,’ Sept. 21, 2023) was great. He gave a list of the ways that unions are good, and he mentioned something about racial equality. There is another anti-racist aspect of unions that I don’t think gets mentioned often: the way unions can and do stop the spread of racism in the white working-class.
In a column included in a 1998 collection of his work in previous decades, Northern Ireland journalist Eamonn McCann wrote that the labor movement had the most potential to eradicate religious bigotry in N. Ireland. He wrote: “No other institution brings Catholic and Protestant workers together on a regular basis in pursuit of a common purpose, which is antipathetic to sectarianism.” McCann’s columns have been published by an average of 1-2 professional publications (magazines or newspapers) at any given time in the last 40 years and he has held senior positions in Ireland’s labor movement in recent decades and he was one of the main leaders of the N. Ireland civil rights movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 2016 he was elected to the N. Ireland Assembly. He is an expert on fighting sectarianism in N. Ireland and believes that organized labor has a crucial role to play.
Many people believe there are great similarities between the conflict in N. Ireland during The Troubles and the conflict over racism in the United States. This includes people like Angela Y. Davis and, in 1972, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I believe unions here play a role in combating racism and that that can be escalated when they return to the level of strength they were at before their decline began decades ago. If racist working-class whites see multicultural, anti-racist unions negotiating collective bargaining agreements that they benefit from, many of them will start to question racism.
Unfortunately, many fiscally moderate and conservative Democrats have declined to vote in favor of strengthening labor unions. I’m sure these same Democrats are alarmed at the rise of Donald Trump and at the existence of the Proud Boys. What’s more important to them: protecting capitalism or fighting racism?
— Tom Shelley / Boulder
