The Democratic Socialists of America are reportedly planning an ambitious transformation of New York City’s public school system, intending to shape young minds in alignment with their ideological principles. The organization’s aim, according to sources, is to cultivate a new generation of what they refer to as “baby Bolsheviks.”
Maureen Fadem, a professor at a City University of New York (CUNY) institution, has expressed a desire for students to be educated under a “democratic socialist framework.” She advocates for the inclusion of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the curriculum, despite the controversial legacy of their writings, which have been associated with historical figures like Stalin and Mao, known for their oppressive regimes.
Fadem, who teaches at CUNY Kingsborough Community College, argues for a comprehensive overhaul of the current educational curriculum. She emphasizes the need to re-evaluate, revise, and reframe it through a lens of class consciousness.
Under this proposed educational reform, students would be taught about “class consciousness,” a concept rooted in Marxist ideology that views a continual conflict between labor and capital, advocating for the abolition of private property. Moreover, Fadem highlights the necessity for teachers to also be trained in developing “race consciousness.”
Expanding on her vision, Fadem insists on incorporating lessons about institutional racism in teacher training programs. She believes such education in pedagogy is crucial to adjusting the racial perspectives within the teaching workforce.
The socialist is among a rogues’ gallery of controversial CUNY professors — some with criminal charges — employed by the taxpayer-funded university system. Fadem has argued for slavery reparations and says school curricula has been shaped by a conservative perspective.
“The curriculum was built not under a democratic socialist frame, it was built under a neoliberal and conservative frame,” she said.
The meeting, titled “Planning for Socialist School Governance,” was led by NYC DSA Labor Working Group co-chair Nina Bruckenthal, a math teacher at NEST+m, a public science-oriented K-12 school on the Lower East Side, and Amanda Vender, an ESL teacher at the International High School of Sciences in Elmhurst, Queens.
Another teacher warned that the organization’s revolutionary agenda could cause parents to flee the public school system and opt to enroll their kids in charter schools instead — and urged the DSA to fight school choice and “strengthen the UFT.”
“All of our reforms are obviously not very popular. And so as long as school choice exists, parents are going to pull away and go to charter schools that are ununionized because they believe in that,” one teacher admitted.
The DSA educators vowed to use their connections to fellow socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani to get their agenda through, and also conspired to use upcoming contract negotiations to realize their far-left goals.
“DSA does have a relationship with the mayor and we can leverage that,” Bruckenthal said.
They also pledged to insert their demands into upcoming contract negotiations between the United Federation of Teachers and NYC.
“The webinar made clear that the DSA sees Mayor Mamdani [as a] window of opportunity to advance its agenda,” North American Values Institute Research Director Mika Hacker said.
Former Community Education Council 2 President Maud Maron said parents should beware the power-hungry radicals.
“Childless apparatchiks seeking access to other people’s children in order to convert them to their beliefs is the definition of grooming. Hands off the kids,” Maron told The Post.
The UFT contract for Gotham teachers is set to expire Nov. 28, 2027 and the DSA has progressively been strengthening its grip on the union.
“We can make real wins through our contract bargaining process. I would argue for this group, something that is strategic and winnable could be won through our bargaining,” Bruckenthal said.
Many DSA members are part of the UFT’s Movement of Rank-and-File Educators caucus, and the two organizations have joined together to stage anti-Israel protests throughout the city.
The group articulated a plan to wrest control of the UFT and use its power to influence local politics — noting many members were in the MORE caucus in an internal memo published in Politico.