DENVER—The Colorado Education Association (CEA) is no stranger to mass mobilization. In March, thousands of educators flooded the state capitol to protest proposed education budget cuts. Now, the union is escalating its fight, not only against austerity but against ICE raids targeting schools, while laying the groundwork for a potentially historic general strike on May 1, 2028.
The CEA, the largest union in Colorado, organized the No More Cuts demonstration last month to “demand no more cuts to education and call for the fully funded public schools Colorado students deserve,” the union said. Ninety-five percent of students in Colorado attend public schools.
“A cut is a cut—no matter how it’s framed, reducing school funding will harm students, educators, and public education in Colorado,” said Mike Szalay, a Colorado teacher.
“Having fully funded schools means having the adequate staff that we need to give attention to all of the students,” he said. “Underfunded schools mean larger class sizes, cutting programs, extracurriculars, just really making the education system less effective.”
President Donald Trump took formal action to dismantle the Department of Education –achieving a goal long pursued by the ultra-right through a wide-reaching Executive Order.
“Gutting the Department of Education means gutting our public schools, where 95% of students learn,” the National Education Association, of which the CEA is a state affiliate, said.
“Anti-public education politicians and their billionaire friends are trying to dramatically slash funding that helps reduce class sizes, feed hungry students, provide special education services, and lower the cost of college and vocational schools while they dismantle the very agency that protects students,” the union said.
“If successful, Trump’s continued actions will hurt all students by sending class sizes soaring, cutting job training, making higher education more expensive and putting it out of reach for middle-class families, taking away special education services for students with disabilities, and gutting student civil rights protections,” said Becky Pringle, a Philadelphia science teacher and President of the NEA.
Last weekend at the CEA’s annual Delegate Assembly, the union also resolved to prepare the union for the 2028 general strike call initiated by the United Auto Workers. Of course, this didn’t emerge in a vacuum. It builds on years of militant action, including the protest last month where teachers, parents, and students shut down the capitol to demand an end to education defunding. Similar demonstrations in prior years—like the 2018 “Red for Ed” wave—proved Colorado’s teachers and their allies could flex their power.
Furthermore, on April 5, over 600 CEA delegates marched out of the Delegate Assembly meeting and joined the “Hands Off” demonstrations, linking arms with other labor and progressive protesters resisting the Trump administration’s anti-worker policies.
“Our members have shown they’re ready to fight, whether against school cuts or ICE terror,” leaders in the CEA told People’s World. “Now, we’re uniting with workers worldwide to say: Enough. No more business as usual.”
While educators battle funding cuts, the Trump administration’s repeal of sanctuary protections has opened the door to ICE raids in schools—a deliberate tactic to destabilize public education. Attendance has plummeted as families keep children home, fearing deportation.
“They cut funding, then point to empty desks and say, ‘See? Public schools are failing,’” CEA leaders explained to People’s World. “It’s a scam to justify privatization, and we won’t let it happen.”
The CEA has responded to these reactionary policies with emergency measures: “Know Your Rights” training, district-level non-cooperation policies, and even lockdown drills to block ICE agents. But concerted political action is necessary to end these policies for good, union leaders said.
“It is an active participation of everyone to prevent a third term of Donald Trump or the rise of American fascism. Our organizing duty is right in front of us—the folks to our left and right and the folks we work with,” they told People’s World.
“It’s not relying on Bernie Sanders, AOC, Shawn Fain, or anyone else. We need to get the people we know—our co-workers, families, and neighbors—involved and in motion.”
The NEA convened a May Day coalition, with its first major meeting in Chicago, to coordinate escalating actions on May 1 leading up to 2028. The CEA’s role? To ensure the strike isn’t just symbolic but a true shutdown – one that forces the capitalist class to listen.
“Politicians only move when workers disrupt the economy. That’s why we’re organizing in the workplace, not just on social media. Everyone should realize a strike is not a passive act, but mobilizing on the picket line and shutting down industry and commerce,” union leaders said.
For the union, the struggles for immigrant rights, fully funded schools, and worker power are the same. And in Colorado, the groundwork is already being laid—one protest, one lockdown, one walk-out pledge at a time.
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