The DCTA has lots of aspects of social justice unionism. It does a really good job of unifying teachers. Having a large membership allows educators to swap ideas, create community, partnership, and activism among Denver Public Schools employees. However, it is focused more on micro-level issues, such as teacher pay, while avoiding big picture problems and solutions. This restricts DCTA from focusing on larger social justice issues. Often, they become too invested in school funding or teacher pay and neglect reaching out to the community to promote broader change and activism. 

Hostile forces are poised to encourage public sector workers to ditch their unions as soon as the Supreme Court rules on the Janus v. AFSCME case in 2018. Caucus of Working Educators.

Nonetheless, the creation of the Caucus can help to bridge this gap and push the DCTA towards social justice unionism. The creators of CTT align with reform efforts based on community involvement and student opportunity. In a Chalkbeat Colorado article, caucus members mentioned urging DPS to accelerate efforts to recruit more teachers of color in a minority-majority district, and also advocating for local affordable housing issues (Asmar, 2017). The CTT has also organized more with community members, where their caucus is incorporating grass-roots voices who want to drive change in Denver. By connecting with parents, students, business owners who are outside of education, they can more drastically think of how to use teacher’s voices in conjunction with the community to forge intricate change.  Through the work of the CTT in conjunction with the DCTA, members can strive for social justice unionism and create the best possible outcomes and opportunities for Denver’s youth. 

Students at East High School in Denver braved the cold weather to join their teachers in the picket line Monday as educators in the district went on strike for the first time in 25 years. (Photo: @BoulderCRC/Twitter)

I have learned that both effective and equitable practices of organizing are necessary to create meaningful and lasting change. Through my work researching DCTA and the Caucus of Today’s Teachers, it instills hope in me that so many educators and community members are looking out for student well-being. Because of teachers’ voices and dedication, they can create meaningful, powerful, and lasting reform and change for students, despite being failed by the system themselves. Teacher organizing is an effective use of resources and time, and more attention should be paid to what educators advocate for.