What is Trenton thinking?

By a narrow margin, the New Jersey State Board of Education recently approved controversial new equity rules. The staggering 856 public comments should be signal enough that these are problematic.

The new regulations will require schools that segregate sex ed classes to do so based on gender identity instead of biological sex, expand the number of protected classes, and remove numerous instances of gendered language in sex education.

We are strongly against these rules. Further, the State Board of Education should not threaten local school boards for pushing back on overreaching state policies. As a Board made up of appointees of both Governor Murphy and Governor Christie the State Board should not be making politically motivated decisions without input of local school boards who are charged with making real life policy decisions for New Jersey families in our communities, free of political influence. Partisan politics has no place in education. 

Not only are these policy changes not needed, they will result in division among our community, including what will undoubtedly unfold as misinformation campaigns on both sides politicizing the issues at hand. 

Yet, we are already seeing aggressive campaigning with harsh accusations that our schools are teaching children inappropriate things. There is no evidence this is happening in our more than 600 school districts. Only rhetoric. We also strongly condemn this partisan dividing of local school boards. We do not need this distraction. 

The New Jersey Board of Education needs to bring the focus back to education, and what we like to call academic excellence. It’s not a fight we can win alone, or through ill-advised school board policies. We believe school boards should band together, reach across zip codes and tell the Board these new rules overstep in a major way.