In October, the Democratic Socialists of America held a training session in New York City for a program called "Red Sprouts." The curriculum: how to provide "resistance-driven childcare" using "radical storytelling," "cooperative games," and "age-appropriate discussions" designed to plant socialist ideas in children too young to tie their own shoes.
They named it Red Sprouts. Out loud. On purpose.
The DSA didn't wait long after the midterms to announce where the enthusiasm was headed next. According to American Wire News, the organization's post-election energy is being funneled directly into K-12 education and childcare programs, with local chapters building out infrastructure to embed ideology into school boards, curricula, and after-school environments. The Los Angeles chapter of the DSA established a Public Education Committee specifically aimed at recruiting socialist-aligned candidates for school board races and pushing policies like the Green New Deal into classroom instruction.
Alleigh Marré, who leads the American Parents Coalition, has been tracking the effort. "There's been a real influx in enthusiasm and their ability and desire to recruit and grow their movement," Marré told American Wire News. "What's particularly concerning and insidious is their direct efforts to apply that to not just adults, but to youth."
Marré didn't mince the stakes. "The DSA really understands and values that if you can indoctrinate and teach these kids really young, their perceived value of socialism, that that's going to stick with kids for a lifetime," she said. "It's much easier to teach a child an idea or ideal in their infancy, and when they're very young and they're forming their worldview."
The strategy isn't subtle, and it isn't new — but the transparency is. Red Sprouts doesn't pretend to be a neutral after-school enrichment program. The name tells you the ideology. The training materials tell you the method: storytelling that frames the world through a socialist lens, games that reinforce collectivist thinking, discussions that steer children toward predetermined conclusions about economics and government. This isn't education. It's recruitment with crayons.
Marré's American Parents Coalition launched a program called "Lookout" specifically to help parents identify when socialist activism is operating inside their children's schools. The fact that such a program needs to exist tells you everything about how far the infiltration has already gone.
The LA DSA's Public Education Committee isn't hiding behind the usual progressive euphemisms about "equity" or "community investment." They're openly recruiting school board candidates and openly promoting the Green New Deal as classroom policy. The midterm gains gave them confidence. The confidence gave them volume. And the volume is aimed squarely at children who can't vote, can't organize, and can't opt out of whatever their teacher puts in front of them.
"There's this really concerted effort to instill an ideology in really, really young children, rather than teaching kids how to think and introducing a breadth of ideologies," Marré said. "It's really focused on socialist and communist aligned ideas."
A political movement that has to start its pitch in preschool is a movement that knows it can't win the argument with adults. Red Sprouts held its training in October. The midterms were November 5th. The school board recruitment pipeline was already built before the ballots were counted.