URGENT PRESS RELEASE Regarding Dangerous Overreach by the NJ Department of Education

To: NJ Globe

Re: URGENT PRESS RELEASE Regarding Dangerous Overreach by the NJ Department of Education

Date: July 27, 2023

From: Victoria A. Jakelsky, Director of NJ Parental Rights

16 brave and courageous legislators have signed their names on letters sent to the State School Board stating that the New Jersey Department of Education does not have the legal authority to assume legislative authority by making such drastic changes to N.J.A.C. 6A:7, Managing for Equality and Equity in Education. They are asking the members of the State School Board to vote no on August 2, on the proposed changes to N.J.S.A. Chapter 7.

Sixteen of our NJ Representatives from LD-4, through LD-30 are standing united to say that these proposed changes are broad and overbearing. If they are passed, they will confuse the children, erase gender, strip parental rights, and silence religious liberty. If passed, they will place LGBT rights above all and force ALL NJ schools to place equity over education. Please remember that Amendment I of our U.S. Constitution makes it clear that the government cannot prohibit the free exercise of religion or of deeply held religious views. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” If this proposal is passed, the NJ DOE will be prohibiting the free exercise of religious liberty of countless students, teachers, and staff in every single NJ public school district.

The concern is that the Department of Education has gone too far. The proposed changes are not bringing the Administrative Code up to current law, but rather attempting to amend law. It the lawmakers, who have been elected by their constituents, that have the authority to make this type of change to the N.J.S.A., not the Department of Education. 

In December of 2022 the NJ Department of Education (NJ DOE) took a step too far. The NJ DOE says that they have the authority to update the N.J.A.C. (New Jersey Administrative Code); however, the proposal of changes to Chapter 7 – N.J.A.C. 6A:7, Managing for Equality and Equity in Education that the NJ DOE presented to the State School Board in January 2023 was not that. If passed the changes will stifle our First Amendment Rights, indoctrinate children, and remove federal and state funding.

Through January and February 694 people sent in emails to the NJ DOE with concerns. Many opposed the deletion of the words “male and female students” and the NJ Department of Education’s proposal to replace them with “based on gender identity”. The argument being that the state’s proposal to not permit the schools to separate the children by sexes (male and female) during classes that deal exclusively with human sexuality is unwise and dangerous. The people argued that each school should be able to make its own decisions as to how they teach about female and male human sexuality in Health Class. The state should never mandate that boys and girls learn about private matters in the same Health Class. Separating the students “only on the basis of gender identity” is harmful, dangerous, and it goes against common sense and natural law.

To delete the words “for male and female students” and replace them with “based on gender identity” and deleting the words “minority, female, and male” and replacing them with “all” is erasing the facts.

Below is the text from that part of the proposal:

(b)2i. Portions of classes that deal exclusively with human sexuality may be conducted in separate developmentally appropriate sessions [for male and female students] based on gender identity, provided the course content for such separately conducted sessions is the same; 3. [Reducing or preventing the underrepresentation] Increasing and promoting equitable representation of [minority, female, and male] all students in all classes and programs [, including gifted and talented, accelerated, and advanced classes];

After that, the normal process started. NJ Code is proposed by the Commissioner and introduced for discussion, followed by that, the proposed changes are published in the New Jersey Register. Next, the public is permitted to give input for a term between 30-60 days. During this term of 60 days, hundreds of concerned citizens wrote in from all 21 NJ counties. The members of the State School Board reported that they received more than 1,000 emails with concerns about the pending changes to Chapter 7.

This was followed by public testimony on Chapter 7 which was held live on May 3. Please see testimonies of members from Team PYC – Protect Your Children at that hearing here on Conversations That Matter | Parental Rights & Local Education Control in the Balance in NJ.

The concern over boys in girls’ private classrooms is only one of the problems within these pending changes. From the title of the chapter being replaced from Managing for Equality and Equity in Education, and completely deleting the word Equality, now renaming it Managing for Equity in Education it is clear that this is not a proposed change, nor an amendment, BUT A COMPLETE REPLACEMENT!

The Department proposes at N.J.A.C. 6A:7-1.7(d)2, “to replace the references of “two” or “both” sexes with “based on sex” or “all sexes” to “capture all gender identities and not only male and female.”

The arguments were that students deserve developmentally sound, medically accurate and evidence-based education. Medically, biologically, and scientifically, there are humans with XX chromosomes and there are humans with XY chromosomes.

From gender being removed and replaced with genetic information and educational programs and services being changed to educational activities and programs 6A:7-1.1 (page 24), to removing the word public before school and changing it to programs offered within the school district 6A:7-1.1(a) (page 28) we see and understand that this proposal has been designed to force one ideology into every single aspect of the NJ Public School System and also into each and every activity, sports program, and outside organization that meets in its facilities, to mandate that they all succumb to this new false doctrine and dogma to glorify the LGBT lifestyle and somehow say people are less than or greater than due to skin color or sexual identity.

To quote from Martin Luther King Jr’s 1947 essay “The Purpose of Education, “Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.” Yet in this proposal the DOE denies that that are only two genders, wants to force all children to learn at the same rate and prohibit gifted and advanced students from excelling by forcing a twisted version of equity into absolutely everything.

It is not just the students and the parents whose rights will be stripped, but also the local control.

N.J.A.C. 6A:7-1.4 Responsibilities of the District Board of Education

On Page 9: “The Department proposes an amendment at N.J.A.C. 6A:7-1.4(c), which requires that each district board of education develop, once every three years, a comprehensive equity plan that must identify and correct all discriminatory and inequitable educational and hiring policies, patterns, programs, and practices affecting its facilities, programs, students, and staff.”

These policies and practices will need to comply with the new equity code or the schools will be sanctioned.

On the last page of the 42 page proposal it shows that the changes will have serious consequences: [(f)] (e) If the district board of education does not implement the comprehensive equity plan within [180] 60 days of the [plan’s approval] executive county superintendent’s certification of completion date, or fails to report its progress annually, sanctions deemed to be appropriate by the Commissioner or [his or her] the Commissioner’s designee shall be imposed. Sanctions may include action to suspend, terminate, or refuse to award continued Federal or State financial assistance, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:55-2.

Many school districts within New Jersey depend on state and federal aid to operate. Without these funds the student’s education will suffer. Sanctions will be imposed upon any school district that does not implement the comprehensive equity plan within 60 days; the sanctions can suspend, terminate, or even refuse to grant schools Federal or State financial assistance and would further deprive students of a quality education.

The above is only a small sample of the dozens of harmful changes that will take place if these changes are approved by the State School Board this Wednesday, August 2.

For these reasons and many more, sixteen of our NJ Representatives from LD-4, through LD-30 are standing united to say that these proposed changes are broad and overbearing. If they are passed, they will confuse the children, erase gender, strip parental rights, and silence religious liberty. Amendment I of our U.S. Constitution makes it clear that the government cannot prohibit the free exercise of religion or of deeply held religious views. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” If this proposal is passed, the NJ DOE will be prohibiting the free exercise of religious liberty of countless students, teachers, and staff in every single NJ public school district.

16 brave and courageous legislators have signed their names on letters sent to the State School Board stating that the New Jersey Department of Education does not have the legal authority to assume legislative authority by making such drastic changes to N.J.A.C. 6A:7, Managing for Equality and Equity in Education.

The concern is that the Department of Education has gone too far. The proposed changes are not bringing the Administrative Code up to current law, but rather attempting to amend law. It is the lawmakers, who have been elected by their constituents, that have the authority to make this type of change to the N.J.S.A., not the Department of Education. 

The following legislators have sent their objections to the State School Board pleading with them to vote no on August 2, 2023, at the next State School Board Meeting. Special thanks to Senator Edward Durr, Assemblywoman Bethanne McCarthy Patrick, Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger, Assemblyman Erik Peterson, Senator Steven Oroho, Assemblyman Harold Wirths, Assemblyman Parker F-Space, Assemblyman Christian Barranco, Assemblyman Umba, Assemblyman Torrissi, Senator Robert Singer, Assemblyman Sean Kean, Assemblyman Edward Thomson, Senator James Holzapfel, Assemblyman John Catalano, and Assemblyman Gregory McGuckin. We are grateful for each one for fighting to PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN, defending your Parental Rights, our Religious Liberty and our First Amendment Rights!

PLEASE joins us live at the meeting to view the vote on

Wednesday, August 2, 10:00-12:30 at the

NJ Department of Education.

100 Riverview Plaza

Trenton, NJ 08625

PLEASE send your letters TODAY to: [email protected];

[email protected]

For more information, please contact Victoria Jakelsky at [email protected]