Food Shortages on the Horizon and Exposing the Teacher Unions

On July 18, 2022, Kim Monson explored two critical threats to American liberty: the looming food supply crisis driven by government policies and the ideological capture of public schools by teacher unions. Colorado State Senator Jerry Sonnenberg, parent advocate Jen Gibbons, and concerned citizen Jameson Dion provided frontline perspectives on these interconnected battles.

Food Supply Chain Crisis and the Cost of Bad Policy

Start listening at 29:23 – Hour 1

Jerry Sonnenberg, Colorado State Senator representing Senate District 1 in northeast Colorado, delivers a sobering assessment of the agricultural crisis unfolding across rural America. Diesel prices have increased two and a half times over the previous year, while fertilizer costs have doubled. Sonnenberg traces these escalating input costs directly to government-induced inflation, COVID shutdowns that disrupted supply chains, and policies that incentivized workers to stay home.

The senator raises alarming concerns about foreign ownership of American food infrastructure. JBS Swift is owned by Brazilians, and Tyson by Chinese interests. Looking ahead 20 to 30 years, Sonnenberg warns that countries like China, unable to produce enough food domestically, are strategically acquiring American farmland and processing facilities to secure food for their populations, potentially leaving Americans short of supplies raised on their own soil.

The conversation also touches on regulatory assaults from animal rights activists. The egg producer legislation, which Sonnenberg calls one of the worst pieces he has seen in 16 years, was pushed through after activists threatened ballot initiatives. Governor Polis and his administration have set the stage for further restrictions on livestock producers, painting ranchers as corporate entities unconcerned with animal welfare, when in reality, Sonnenberg notes, farmers bring newborn calves into their living rooms during blizzards to keep them alive.

“Hungry people are manipulated. If these countries will come in, since the United States is so good at producing food and exporting our food worldwide, come in and buy our food supplies and those chains and export our food so our own restaurants won’t have food.”

Jerry Sonnenberg, Colorado State Senator, District 1

Teacher Unions Put Control Before Kids

Start listening at 70:21 – Hour 2

Jen Gibbons, a concerned parent and founder of Heritage Heights Academy charter school, recounts her first encounter with union intimidation. When she held an informational meeting for parents interested in the new Cherry Creek charter school, union members showed up wearing matching T-shirts that read “Protect This House,” framing the charter school as a threat to the district. When she ran for school board, the union targeted her with TV commercials and mailers.

Through Colorado Open Records Act requests, Gibbons obtained emails proving Cherry Creek School District endorsed Black Lives Matter curriculum during Black History Month, despite public denials. Teachers were encouraged to order matching T-shirts to wear in classrooms. The union, representing roughly half the district’s teachers and staff, actively pushes critical race theory and radical agendas. Meanwhile, fewer than 50% of third graders in the district read at grade level, what Gibbons calls the “prison pipeline.” Instead of focusing on reading, writing, and arithmetic, instructional minutes are devoted to identity culture and divisive ideology.

“The union has a stranglehold on Cherry Creek School District. I’ve been in meetings where they say, well, what is Casey Ellis? Casey Ellis is the president of the union at Cherry Creek School District, and they’re very much worried about what she thinks about things, and she shouldn’t be a player in the kids’ education because they don’t care about kids.”

Jen Gibbons, Concerned Parent and Charter School Founder

CORA Requests Expose Union Coordination

Start listening at 72:17 – Hour 2

Jameson Dion moved from Arvada to Woodland Park in Teller County during COVID, seeking refuge from restrictive health measures. Finding the local education system mediocre, he and his wife got involved in school board elections, helping conservatives win four of five seats. After the election, he discovered that the Woodland Park Education Association used school servers for union emails, opening them to public records requests.

His 35 CORA requests uncovered damning evidence of union coordination. In one email, the WPEA vice president wrote that they were “working closely with the Pikes Peak Education Association for other methods of disruption.” When Dion requested civil disobedience class curriculum, the union president promptly emailed high school teachers to show up and protest the next board meeting. The civil disobedience class itself reads only one book, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a prominent voice in critical race theory.

A kindergarten teacher named Peggy Wallace published an opinion piece in the Colorado Sun bragging about teaching five-year-olds about the January 6th “insurrection” and Black Lives Matter. In a podcast, she described a conversation where a kindergartner processed her lesson by saying some people protest because they don’t feel safe, while others protest just because they aren’t getting what they want. Wallace praised this as critical thinking. She has since resigned from the district.

“If you really look at what the nature of the NEA is, it is about control, but it’s also about taking money and where that money goes.”

Jameson Dion, Concerned Citizen