[0:14]Hello, I'm Michael Watson joined by Sarah Lee and this is our first episode of Capital Research Center's Who Funds That Podcast. I am fond of reminding anyone who will listen that organized labor is an institutional pillar of everything leftism, an omnibus ideology of progressive liberal socialist politics that relies on every single issue, yes, including that one, that has one right answer and every issue relies on all issues following the party line. Today's guest, Ryan Staley of Defending Education, found documents from the Sunrise movement, a radical left mobilization group that has shifted focus from the Green New Deal and environmentalism toward the full everything leftist agenda that further proved these ties. He joins us today to discuss his research on Sunrise Movement's guide to planned school disruptions and the role of the teachers unions in supporting them. Uh Ryan, we had you on the Influence Watch podcast before. Uh today you get the honor of being guest number one on who funds that. Awesome. Well, thanks for having me, guys. For, for uh any new listeners, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your work for Defending Education? Yeah, so I'm a director of research for Defending Education. It's a, it's a nonprofit where we focus on K12 and university level education. Um, you know, we, we believe that um it's it's worth fighting for at this point because um, you know, my other part of my background is I'm a former teacher and educator. Um, my wife's a teacher, my I'm third generation educator. Uh and we've, my wife and I have both worked with families from the full gamut of uh range of backgrounds and so forth. And and so, you know, while we support at defending it, while we support home school, we support school choice, charter schools, etc.. We also know that not every family can um leave the institution that's the public education at at this time and place. And so we we really believe it's worth fighting for. Um, and and and we also know that uh and we expanded out uh about a year and a half ago into the university realm because we also know that that stuff is being pushed down into K12. Uh and so we, that's what we do at Defending Ed. My main job is to dig in the weeds of all the stuff that we're going to talk about, uh and work on exposing um, the the bad actors and the bad ideas. But we also engage in litigation. We, we have a, a, um a lawfair type of um avenue going on. We've, we've filed several lawsuits and won several lawsuits in in various states. Uh, we've filed lawsuits against the Biden administration, etc.. Uh, and we have advocacy. We have, uh, members of our staff who focus on empowering parents in their local communities to uh push back from that angle, so that um it's not just top down all the time. You also, if I could just interrupt, you also allow parents if they see something strange at school, um, there's sort of a tip line, right? Correct. If if, if you go to defendinged.org, that's defendinged.org, you'll find not only our resources and and and materials and so forth, but there's an avenue for you for them to share with us information that they might want to get public. And if people want to share stuff, but they don't want their name out there, we respect their privacy and we, we put it under our name, but if they do want credit, we're, we're happy to help get that out as well. So, you found documents, uh, from the Sunrise movement, which is this radical left outfit that they started as the Green New Deal people, but now they're everything leftist. Um, what did those documents contain? What are they, what are they planning? Well, let's, let's, I think we need to start with like, who are these guys, right? Like, who is the Sunrise movement? And I think one of the things is, as I've kind of, um, evolved in, in, you know, eating up all this information is this. The Sunrise Movement is one group of, of many players in this space. But there's a unique aspect to them. And what they are is they they call themselves a youth led grass, uh grassroots movement, but they're anything, uh, none of the above. Um, their leadership are, are, are adults. Their executive director is a probably a mid-20-year-old who, um, used to go to one of the elite institutions, I think it was UC Berkeley, but don't quote me on that one. It's, it's one of the UC schools. And and a lot of their youth leaders who are of college age, come out of the Ivy Leagues. You know, one of the ones and this kind of starts and we'll kind of transition into, into how we kind of got in this road with the Sunrise movement. But one of the young, young men who was training up high school kids in Minneapolis back in January when a lot of this stuff started to to balloon, um, is actually a sophomore at Brown University. And when you look back at these guys, and and this kind of goes into this whole ecosystem with what we're going to talk about, he was also an activist going back to his high school days and was involved in the Sunrise movement. And so what this group is is they're funded by the Ford Foundation and by other nonprofits, specifically Arabella, uh, consortium, or what is it now? The Sunflower, whatever. Sunflower, Sunflower services. Yeah. The SS. Yeah, they just keep shifting their name to. Yeah. Just keep keep shifting those names, right? And make it sound kind of nice and fluffy. I mean, that's a classic like that's a classic one. Once they get, once you start chasing down, hey, who are these people? They change their name to try to try to keep keep one step ahead of us. Yeah. And and actually and and, you know, the Sunrise movement, they did a, um, a mass protest a couple years ago for climate change and they got students across, I think, like 80 schools across the country. They were the people who like went to back when Diane Feinstein was in the Senate, they like went to her office and did a sit-in. That's exactly who they were. Yes, yes. And they kind of are a less, I think, at this point a less violent, um, group compared to their counterpart in, in Europe that's, uh, what is it, um, oh my gosh, it's escaping me now. Extinction Rebellion.
[6:31]The ones who throw stuff on great paintings. Yeah, and and by the way, the Sunrise movement is moving in that direction and we'll, we'll kind of get to that, but I want to finish up these guys here. And so what I want, really want people to understand is this. This, this group figured out like a couple other left-wing, you know, nonprofits that they can get themselves into the K12 space by forming school clubs. Now, sometimes they go under the name Sunrise Movement, sometimes they're the climate activist group on, on high school campus.
[7:07]Um, we've been tipped off that New York City, there's a public school in Brooklyn that the teacher themselves is like a radical eco-activist who leads the group. In other places, I've found because I've done some Freedom of Information Acts that the teachers just facilitate, they're they're just, they let the kids run the show, really. Um, you know, because a lot of times they need that. But they've found out that they can put these kids inside a school and I believe this is correct, so correct me if I'm wrong, but the idea of salting with, with unions, right?
[7:44]Right. That that's yeah. That's Never Right. That's Never Right. That's Never right saying him. Oh, no, what is it, uh, and then they start to agitate for unionization right.
[7:56]Yep. Yeah, and so think of that with these groups, okay? So they, they get a kid or two who's a really, real zealot in the activist space at a young age.
[8:10]And they go in and then they, they kind of get this club going, etc.. So, so let's, let's transition to these documents that we've found that we've been documenting from January, where what they're trying to do is get inside of these schools, get these kids activated, and and get these walkouts. They want to perform these walkouts minimum of once a month, which they've been doing, right? We've seen, and we have a a protest And by the way this just for a second Ryan, what is the, what is the focus of who are they, who are they targeting with these walkouts? What's their primary concern? The issue of the day. Oh, so it's just what it is. So so it's what it's what.
[8:50]Wherever the eye of Sauron is pointing, that's where they go. Yeah, that's absolutely correct. And and there's an article in October of 2025 where they cover the, the, um, Sunrise movement. And they openly state that they're foregoing their, their deep focus on climate change to attack the Trump administration and to bring about what we now know in their documentation, they explicitly say political revolution. And the most recent documents spell out what that political revolution is, which is an eco-socialist utopian vision, um, that is going to be brought about through this activism. And starting right now with these monthly walkouts on school campus in January was anti-ICE. A couple years ago, it was climate change. It, in some cases it might be, you know, anti-war, you know, again, fill in the issue. Or or Palestinian.
[9:50]Correct. Correct. Yeah, all these groups are involved. Yes. And you mentioned anti-war, I would imagine what's going on in Iran might pique their interest right now too as a, as a topic of concern. Well, that's, that's why I said, yeah, because I think they're smart enough to know like being anti or pro Iran might not totally be kosher.
[14:50]Yeah, I think they're competing. Chicago one, UTA two. Ryan, you think that might not be the correct order? But I would still put CTU one. So that's why they've, they've kind of gone with the, with the, with the anti-war movement, um, but funny enough, they still stayed with a little bit with the anti-ICE, um, type of stuff.
[16:15]Yeah, that's fine. We can discuss the specifics but basically. No, no, no. There are several, several AAUP chapters are AFT chapters. I know I certainly know the one at Rutgers is.
[11:47]I think Tides is involved with this as well, Tides Foundation.
[21:23]And and and I think we, we all have a responsibility to monitor our local, our local school district to to evaluate what's going on there and so forth because, you know, when you, when you bring in teachers from the, from the colleges of education,
[23:17]Oh, sure they're they're operators. They know, they know exactly. I mean, the timing of school board elections in random April of the odd year, you know, that's it's there's they've done political science showing that that means the teachers unions endorsement is all the more powerful. Just on sheer body of work, CTU gets the one seed. Well, it's, yes, and like they're number two at the Chicago Teachers Union, right? I mean, Potter is, um, he was born and raised an activist, right?
[15:17]So, um, and and funny enough that, you know, there their, um, the the Union has been funneling, at least a number of years ago, they funneled quite a few dollars into his mom's lawyer firm, law firm. So, you know, it's just all inside work there. But with UTLA, we also uncovered, and you can find this at our at our defendinged.org, um, we found handwritten documentation from the UTLA about wanting to not only use school funds and and, um, materials to create protest materials, right? For, for efforts against anti-ICE.
[15:52]But they also wanted to engage the student body and give them service hours for patrolling their local neighborhood for ICE agents and an ICE activity. So doing, so doing the stuff that, doing the stuff that, the people that the woman who was killed in Minnesota was doing. Yes, and they're also getting funding, obviously they're getting funding from the, from the two bigs, NEA and AFT as well.
[14:50]It's not, oh, it is Chicago.
[21:43]It's it's the same material, it's the same, and and a lot of the school systems, either by state law or by local local practice, have to, you know, you need certain qualifications to get cleared as a teacher.
[22:17]You can't just be, I did 20 years in finance, I'm going to go teach math now. Uh, so, yeah, it's, it, it, even if you're not necessar, you know, you're not in Chicago, you're not on the front lines, that doesn't mean you're not ultimately on the target list. Well, and and and it goes beyond that because one of the things we've been covering at Defending Ed is the accreditors for those, like those programs. Now, we haven't covered the college of education, but what I did find out in the current project I'm working on is that shocker, the teachers unions were funneling money into the accredit for the colleges of education. And Randy Wine Garden, by the way, sits on the board of some of these organizations that that, you know, are, they're nonprofits, but they, they have heavy influence over the colleges of education, etc., etc.. And the standards, right, the standards that the teachers have to follow. And so, I mean, you kind of have to really, if you're an honest broker, you got to tip your hat to them and say like, they really, uh, they know, they know exactly, I mean, the timing of school board elections in random April of the odd year, you know, that's, it's there's they've done political science showing that that means the teachers unions endorsement is all the more powerful.
[25:04]Right, and I, and I asked the question simply because you may think you're safe in middle of nowhere, Alabama because it's not happening around you, but the nature of these things is that they kind of sneak in the back door. And then you don't really know they're happening until they're happening. And all of a sudden your kid's coming home talking about, you know, how great communism is or whatever and you're like, where are you learning this?
[25:56]Um, so I just wanted to, I wanted to bring it up so that people would get an idea of, well, it's not everywhere, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be aware of it. And so resources like yours are extremely important. Yeah.
[28:30]Yeah, and if people want more information on that front, I think, uh, our friends at the Macanaugh Center have also done some good work on this front. Macanaugh and Macanaugh and Freedom Found, Macanaugh and the Freedom Foundation would would be the two, uh, they're kind of government worker labor focused. They, they know a lot about this stuff. So who are the big funders of sunrise? What are the big, there are foundations behind sunrise, isn't there? Aren't there? Yeah, yeah, you've got the Ford Foundation and, oh my gosh, it's escaping me now. I know Ford for sure. And the reason I say Ford is because I know that like, they have about a 16 billion dollar, um, um, um, pocket, if you will. They're, they're one of the big ones. Right. And what's really, really funny, I find this is so funny because you go to the teachers union too, right? They, what do they bring in like three, four billion dollars a year in, in, in member do revenues, right? And what's really funny is that the Sunrise Movement is going around screaming about the billionaires and the teachers unions are running around screaming about the billionaires and no kings and all this other stuff. And it's like, but you guys are the kings. You are the kings in the education space in terms of the teachers unions. And so, the, the Ford Foundation is one. Arabella Network, you're talking about the Open Society, the Tides Foundation. Open Society being George and Alex Soros. Are you trying to tell me, Ryan, that they're hypocrites? Is that what you're trying to tell me right now? No, no, it's not hypocrisy though. That's the thing. It's hierarchy. It's a political hierarchy. But one of the other things that we can't put into tangible dollars that I want to bring up because I, when I did that protest tracker of the high school stuff, I've read through hundreds of news articles. And one of the patterns that popped up is this: we can't quantify social media influence. And the thing with teenagers, and by the way, we're seeing this with the Iran conflict, right? We're already, we've already seen from some reports that with Iran that like 60% of the influential tweets are coming from outside of the United States trying to manipulate and propagandize our population. And that's the same thing that these groups are doing that's very good at like Sunrise movement and the DSA and the PSL, the Party for Social Liberation. They're very, very good at is getting into these kids feeds and giving them likes and retweets, which gives them those dopamine kicks and the kids feel important. And so, we can't quantify the, the, like what that in dollar amount, what that would be as an influence structure, but that has played a really big role in a lot of these kids going and doing their own walkouts and and leading up to Mayday is the social media influence. And so I think we can't discount that part of things either. Yeah, and I would say that the, the, a corollary to that is that these kids don't know they're being manipulated by a machine quite often. Almost all the time, actually. They, they're not aware. So the dopamine hit is what they know. Um, and so it's, it's actually pretty, it's pretty despicable to use kids who don't understand what's going on to promote your lust for power. Well, with that, uh, Ryan, before we let you go, anything else that you'd like to highlight? No, I appreciate the time to come on and and chat with you all and it's good to see you again and um, get to be number one, so that's cool. Uh, but um, I think, you know, the biggest thing I'd say is that, um, to encourage your listeners to go to Defending Ed dot org and continue to monitor.
[32:16]We've got more stuff coming very soon, more stuff that's, you know, in the works and so forth and we, we're going after all kinds of things from accreditors, the top, the big influencers that we can kind of put some pressure on, all the way down to highlighting the stuff that's going on in your kid's classroom. All right. Well, thanks again to Defending Education's Ryan Staley for joining us. We will include a link to his work on Sunrise Movement school disruption toolkit in today's show notes. That's our show for this week. We encourage our listeners to subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcast or Spotify. And if you have subscribed, thank you, and please leave us a five-star rating. Those ratings really help us find new listeners, especially if they come with a positive review. We'll see you all next week.
