A 30-second ad for New Jersey’s largest teachers’ union has rekindled the debate over the state’s new sex education standards, putting the issue at the center of the all-important congressional midterm elections weeks ahead.
New Jersey has more Democratic incumbents seeking reelection in the “frontline” congressional battlefield than any other state in the country. And as Democrats struggle to maintain control of Washington, conflicts over cultural issues likely to galvanize Republican voters are considered powerful, including those taught in schools. .
Nowhere has sex education standards, being taught for the first time this semester, captured more attention than the campaign for the 7th congressional district, widely considered the most competitive of the state’s 12 midterm elections.
There, Democrat Rep. Tom Malinowski is running for re-election against Republican Tom Keene Jr., who is about 1% ahead of him in 2020. Bring the race even closer.
Keene, the son of a popular former Republican governor who has run for Congress for the fourth time, has kept the sex education debate at the forefront even though his campaign has focused primarily on the economy. I’ve been working on it as well.
Then, in mid-August, when the union, the New Jersey Educational Association, announced an advertisement, it landed with explosive momentum.
He stressed the importance of working together to build strong schools, but he saw angry adults screaming and pointing fingers saying, “We fight only to get political points, I want to discuss it.” Called them “extremists.”
According to union officials, the spot is intended to send a signal that the powerful organization has no plans to back down from the heated debate that has turned the school board into a battlefield in the war over what students read and what they are taught. He said he was
Detailed Coverage of the 2022 Midterm Elections
“This is a turning point in our country’s trajectory,” said Dr. Chrissy Miles, the union’s director of professional development and leadership issues. “And I’m going to focus on the importance of teaching the truth.”
Republicans and national right-wing groups were quick to note the use of the word “extremist” in ads to describe some parents.
Republicans in the state Senate took a break from summer vacation to host an online panel discussion, “Sex Education, State Curriculum Mandates and Parental Rights,” on Facebook Live. A few days later, their parliamentary counterparts published an acerbic parody of the ad, which was quickly removed from YouTube after the union accused it of violating copyright laws.
The New Jersey Board of Education adopted revised sex education standards in 2020, but it will be implemented for the first time this year. Sophomores need to learn about gender role stereotypes and how people express their gender. By the end of grade 5, students are taught about sexual development and the role of hormones, and in grade 8, they receive instruction on factors that help them make healthy decisions about sex, including vaginal, anal, and oral her sex. will be able to define
School districts have wide flexibility in designing their curriculum, and parents can remove their children from any class where that content is taught.
Controversy over the new standards first flared up at the school board’s winter meeting in Westfield, New Jersey. Keane lives in a wealthy bedroom town about 30 miles west of Manhattan. Some parents wonder if the standards are age-appropriate. Others liken the directive to pedophilia and child abuse.
In several media interviews during the campaign, Keane emphasized the importance of respecting parental input in education. He also named Parent Voice Coalition, a website primarily focused on fundraising for his campaign. The donor is quoted on the site as saying, “Kean knows it is wrong to teach young children sex education that focuses on teaching gender identity and normalizing pornography.”
His opponent, Mr. Malinowski, said on Twitter Mr Keene “hitches his wagon to the most extreme wing of his party”.
“There is a fringe movement that has fallen upon our school boards. education.”
Malinowski said, according to a video first reported by Breitbart and confirmed by his campaign, the movement is trying to divide us over “hoaxed cultural” nonsense.
Comment, Mr. Keane said on Twitter on Thursdayshowed that Mr. Malinowski “doesn’t want parents to have a say.”
A union spokesman said the ad made it clear that it sees parents as “important partners in building great schools.”
“However, we are very concerned about a small but very loud group of people who are doing unfair and dangerous things, such as calling educators pedophiles and racists.
Parents, outraged by the impact of mask and vaccine mandates and distance learning on young children and teenagers last year, were a major voting bloc in the country’s two gubernatorial elections.
In Virginia, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin rode a wave of parental unrest to an upset victory. In New Jersey, where Republican voter turnout soared, Democratic Governor Philip D. Murphy was narrowly re-elected and his party lost seven of his seats in the state legislature.
But in New Jersey, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by about a million voters, a largely suburban state, helped the Democrats overthrow the House in the final midterm elections of 2018, leading to a vote in the middle of the year. It is filled with well-educated and moderate voters who are considered essential to elections. result.
The political impact of arguments focused on parental choice and government overreach is also less clear after the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned the constitutional right to abortion.
Wednesday’s Democratic congressional victory in Alaska and a vote in Kansas against removing abortion rights from the state constitution are early signs that access to abortion can be a powerful motivator for middle voters. Shows. Last month in New York, Democrat Pat Ryan was elected to Congress in a swing district similar to Malinowski’s after running a campaign focused on abortion rights.
“The question is whether the Democrats can effectively translate Dobbs’ message into a larger message to neutralize the Republican party’s successful message from 2021,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Poll Research Institute. Which party really controls how you live your life?”
In April, after New Jersey’s sex education standards sparked controversy, the state’s Department of Education issued a memo clarifying them. It emphasized the importance of teaching children about puberty before it begins and identifying gender stereotypes, including those that could limit their academic performance.
“Starting these conversations in early grades helps students develop empathy for diverse groups of people,” she writes.
By understanding the proper terminology, children will be able to “stay safe, assess risks, make informed decisions, and communicate health problems and injuries when necessary.” ‘ she added.
Much of the controversy stems from examples of sample lessons that may have been created by a nonprofit in Washington that advocates for youth sexual health and physical autonomy. The link was shared at a Westfield School Board meeting, but was not adopted by the town.
“We unintentionally created a national storm,” said school board president Brendan Galligan.
Garrigan, who is not registered with either major political party, said the ensuing media attention distracted him from more pressing issues for months.
“We’ve gotten to the point where it’s all about Republicans or Democrats in this country. Nobody wants to hear the nuances,” he said. “It was incredibly difficult to work through the noise.”
In May, the neighboring town of Garwood became the first municipality in the state to vote on its board to reject the state’s educational standards outright.
In Morris County, partly within Malinowski’s district, last month a Republican-led commission passed a symbolic resolution calling on the state to repeal the standard. And on Monday, the town of Warren, N.J., in Somerset County in the 7th congressional district, became the second school district in his state to show that it will not implement the standards after a vote to adopt the new curriculum ended in a tie. became.
“The state’s extreme sex education standards are just the latest example of encroachment on what has traditionally been the confines of the family,” Warren Board member Daniel Clawson said in a post-vote statement. said.
Mr. Keen what happened in warren with Mr Clawson on Thursday.