Advocates of New Jersey’s wildly-inappropriate new curriculum standards can’t defend the model materials, Save Jerseyans, so instead of defending the substance itself, they’re offering up a series of lame process arguments.
“The materials aren’t actually mandatory.”
“The curriculum standards don’t specifically cite stuff like the clitoris.”
“You can opt out!”
“I think there’s some sort of sense that parents have no say, and I would just say emphatically that parents deserve absolutely to have a say in this sort of stuff – along with all other interested parties, but probably none are more interested than parents,” Murphy told a reporter who broached the topic on Monday.
Likewise, even Murphy critics (like Middletown BOE President Frank Capone) have sought to educate parents on how to opt out of the actual health classes:
Parents note; Here in Middletown, we have an OPT-OUT for all Health curricula. Your child has a choice. Please speak to your school and pick up your form if you choose. There are several units based on a child’s grade.@Jax1331 @SaveJersey @MikeCarterTV
8th-grade sample form pic.twitter.com/4Sw5vhOPMQ
— Frank Capone (@Frank_Cap1_BOE) April 11, 2022
“According to the Department of Education Commissioner, any parent can opt their kids out of this if they choose to. I have re-confirmed this with our Monmouth County representative to the State Board of Education which approves the adopted guidelines,” State Senator Vin Gopal, Democrat chairman of the Education Committee, explained on social media earlier this week. “This can be done through your local board of education.”
But is opting out truly possible in all circumstances?
State Senator Joe Pennacchio (R-26) says it’s not. Not really. Advocates of the new curriculum standards are playing games.
“The so-called opt-out of the new rules is meaningless, because as the standards state, the specifics of the curriculum can apply to all content areas,” said Pennacchio. “A parent may be able to opt their child out of health and phys-ed, but the material will be integrated in science, social studies, and English lessons, anyway.
“My message to parents is this: Don’t let them tell you that you can opt out of everything, because you can’t,” added Pennacchio.
Pennacchio specifically cited a broadly-worded section from the FAQ portion of the Department of Education’s website:
“Each school district is required by law to provide instruction in grades K-12 at an appropriate place in the curriculum that highlights and promotes diversity, including economic diversity, equity, inclusion, tolerance, and belonging in connection with gender and sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, disabilities, and religious tolerance; as well as the political, economic, and social contributions of persons with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people at the middle and high school level. There is no opt-out provision in these statues.”
The possibility therefore exists that woke districts – and woke teachers – could add subject matter from the state curriculum standards concerning transgenderism, sex, and controversial gender “science” into social studies classes, english literature, mathematics, and a variety of other school subjects that don’t directly relate to “health” at all.
It’s not hard to imagine far-Left lesson plans creeping into other areas of the curriculum. For example, Save Jersey previously highlighted a book for Lawrence Township 6th graders in which the author declares “racism is a white person’s problem.”
What if your kid’s teacher inserts an inappropriate lesson about gender into an otherwise innocent discussion of Joan of Arc in social studies class? It’s unclear – doubtful, in fact, as the Senator explains – that you could opt out of that.
“The opt out is a misnomer. There is no mechanism in the law that allows parents of 4- and 5-year-olds to opt out of sexual identity and orientation lessons,” Pennacchio continued. “At best, there is a lot of ambiguity and confusion about these new rules and what they mean for our children, and that’s by design. The Administration isn’t making it easy for parents to understand how these changes will impact their kids, their families, or their communities.”
“The Administration wants to remove parents from the equation,” added Pennacchio. “These extreme curriculum plans are the results of several different laws passed by Democrats in the Legislature over the past few years. The State seems to think these youngsters are ‘infected’ by an unconscious bias, so they determined to reprogram their developing minds. And they aren’t about to provide an escape hatch to allow children to slip through without being rewired.”
