MORRIS COUNTY — Senator calls on Governor Murphy to veto the Department of Education’s meeting minutes and to keep kids out of his administration’s social engineering experiment.
Senator Joe Pennacchio blasted the Murphy administration for a recent controversial ruling by the State Board of Education that has parents and legislators concerned about the direction of education policy in New Jersey.
“New Jerseyans and even some Democrat leaders are speaking out against the Murphy administration’s attempts to push identity politics into the classroom. Parents are tired of their kids being subject to this constant social engineering experiment when real issues such as learning loss are being ignored. Substituting equity for equality is an anathema to our Constitutional principles, and the fact that these changes were specifically directed at children makes it more onerous. I urge Governor Murphy to respect parental rights and veto the Department of Education’s meeting minutes to stop these misguided policies from going into effect.
These issues stand in a long line of grievances that New Jersey families have with the Murphy administration. During the pandemic, Governor Murphy’s Department of Education hurt students academically when they shut down schools and made parents feel like they were losing autonomy over their children by forcing students to wear masks, even as COVID-19 subsided. Today we are seeing more of the same from the State Board of Education and the controversial curriculum they are pushing into the classroom. It is time for government bureaucrats to step aside and let parents, teachers, and local school boards work together to determine what is in the best interests of their community.”
The State Board of Education narrowly approved a controversial set of new guidelines on August 2 for school districts. School districts have 60 days to implement the new policies, or they risk losing state and federal financial aid.
Senate Republicans announced their intention to introduce legislation that would repeal the state board’s decision and called on the Legislature to return to Trenton for a vote before the new policies go into effect after reports of concerns from even Democratic legislative leadership were made public about the NJ School Board.
