Introduction & Contents

In April 2004, CEA exposed the “Too Extreme for Colorado” movement, composed of individuals and groups attempting to privatize public education by any means. Citizens such as Alex Cranberg and Steve Schuck lead the privatization charge in Colorado.

Our research found that John Walton, one of the Wal-Mart heirs, is a key figure in the Too Extreme for Colorado movement. Walton and the Walton Family Foundation are leading funders of school voucher research and advocacy efforts.

Our research led us to explore what’s behind John Walton and the Walton Family Foundation – and that’s Wal-Mart, Inc., the world’s largest retail company.

In September 2004, the CEA Board of Directors appointed a work group following the board’s decision to develop and implement “oppositional activities” to Wal-Mart’s anti-labor, anti-worker practices in Colorado. One of the work group’s products is this Member Education Kit.

The kit is the starting point for a broad, continual, statewide campaign to expose Wal-Mart’s anti-labor, anti-worker activities and practices – and to educate our members and the communities in which they live about Wal-Mart’s support of the Walton family’s anti-public education views and actions.

Kit Contents (a living document)

• CEA Position Statement

• Facts: Wal-Mart & the Walton Family

• Wal-Mart in Colorado

• Wal-Mart: A Great Place to Work?

• Wal-Mart’s Economic Impact on Communities

• John Walton and Public Education

• Wal-Mart’s “Education Philanthropy”

• What Unions Are Doing about Wal-Mart

• Oppositional Activities: How You Can Help

• Potential Local Community Coalition Partners

• Web Site References

• Tips for Writing Letters to the Editor

• Tips for Calling a Talk Radio Show

• FAQs: To Boycott or Not Boycott

• Cynical Philanthropy: A Brief History of an Unfortunately Long Tradition

• Prototype member education flyer

CEA Wal-Mart Work Group: Kim Ursetta (Denver CTA) and Ardy Zirakzadeh (Boulder Valley EA), Chairpersons; Robert Alarid (Denver CTA), Joan Berryman (Uncompahgre Valley EA), Sonja Burrill (Ellicott EA), Barbara Clementi (Pueblo EA), Julie McCrea (Durango EA), Fran Mueller (Las Animas EA), Scott Peoples (Mapleton EA)