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How will NJ respond if schools reject sex ed standards? Gov. Murphy isn't saying
By
Louis C. Hochman
Published Aug 31, 2022
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By
Louis C. Hochman
Published Aug 31, 2022
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With just days to go before the start of the school year, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is declining to say what will happen if some school districts don’t adopt the state’s controversial new sex education curriculum standards.
On Tuesday night’s edition of “Ask Governor Murphy,” host Nancy Solomon noted several districts have pushed back on the standards, adopted in 2020 and set to go into effect this school year. Parents at some school board meetings have described lessons prompted by the standards as “pornographic” or “perverted.”
“I live in one of those towns, Middletown — and they're pretty active in the hysteria around this,” Murphy said.
In early August, Middletown school officials announced families would have to “opt in” to lessons based on the new standards, which call for discussion of concepts regarding sexual health and identity, and set benchmarks by age for concepts to be introduced. New Jersey law allows families to opt-out of sex education lessons.
Kate Farley, a Middletown Board of Education member, recently told Gothamist by email parents would be given a form at the start of the school year “with the option to consent to instruction for all units or only particular units of study.”
“We did this to put parents in the driver’s seat and ensure that all parents have reviewed the curriculum, are aware of the content and approve of instruction for their child (or not, as the case may be),” she wrote.
She said the district hadn’t heard from the state Department of Education on its plan “because we’ve adopted the new standards and our plan is in full compliance with what is already permitted under NJ law — parents have always had the option to not consent to the health curriculum for their child.”
Middletown is one of several districts looking to balance the state’s requirement with some parents’ arguments that the curriculum exposes children to concepts better addressed in older grades, or at home. East Hanover, in a letter to parents, said lessons based on the new standards would be confined to a single school day.
Some districts have gone further. Garwood’s board of education passed a resolution in May rejecting the standards outright, Patch reported. Warren Township voted this week to ignore the updated standards as well, according to Townsquare Media.
In July, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education told NorthJersey.com any districts that reject the standards could face consequences — but the nature of any penalty might vary. She said she wouldn’t speculate on what the department might do, because the consequences would be decided on a case-by-case basis.
The Department of Education’s press office hasn’t yet answered a Wednesday morning email seeking elaboration on potential consequences, or whether it’s been in touch with uncooperative districts to warn them.
During “Ask Governor Murphy,” which airs on WNYC, WBGO and WHYY, the governor also declined to discuss possible consequences — or how the department would gauge compliance.
“We have a lot of different options, but let's remember we have 1.4 million kids,” he told Solomon. “Let's do everything we can.”
As described by the Townsquare Media report, the Warren Township district’s attorney said consequences could include a loss of state funding, corrective action plans, ethics charges — even state moves to strip administrators of licenses or certificates.
But as to the specifics, Murphy told Solomon: “I don’t have a crisp answer for you.”
The New Jersey School Boards Association says in guidance on the standards that they “address topics that students should know about, including personal growth and development; pregnancy and parenting; emotional health; social and sexual health; community health services and support; movement skills and concepts; physical fitness; lifelong fitness; nutrition; personal safety; health conditions, diseases and medicine; alcohol, tobacco and drugs; dependency, and substances disorder and treatment.”
It’s up to individual districts to craft curricula that implement the standards — the state doesn’t provide districts with required lesson plans.
But controversy erupted earlier this year, after Westfield schools released sample lessons the state had provided. Sketches in a folder marked “by the end of grade 2,” for instance, included drawings of naked boys and girls, including pictures of genitals.
Murphy told Solomon the standards are age-appropriate, and New Jersey law gives parents say in their children’s education.
“I just hope folks don't use this as a political wedge to pit us against them,” he said. “And invariably, it’s the LGBTQIA+ community that is the loser when that happens.”
The governor gave one example of a lesson that might be taught in early grades.
“Girls don’t always have to wear pink,” he said. “Boys don’t always have to wear blue. Girls don’t always have to take art classes. Boys, science. Girls one sport, boys different sports.
“We want to create an awareness from the earliest years that you could grow up in America, certainly in New Jersey, but in America to be anything you want to be.”
Ask Governor Murphy is a production of WBGO in Newark in partnership with WNYC and WHYY. It’s hosted by Solomon, a senior reporter for WNYC and Gothamist.
Tagged
education
new jersey
phil murphy
Louis C. Hochman
After about two decades in (mostly) New Jersey-focused commercial print, digital and digital-but-radio-adjacent news, Lou stumbled into member-supported news in early 2021, as the editor and CEO of Montclair Local. There, he (hopes he) expanded enterprise, brought more sophistication to digital storytelling and moved the nonprofit newsroom closer to long-term financial sustainability. He helped lead the Local to its fourth consecutive General Excellence award from the New Jersey Press Association — the NJPA's highest honor with judges noting the paper's work to strip away layers of government opacity, to hold power to account, to make news accessible for more members of the community, to share the stories and concerns of more facets of the community and to tell compelling stories across multiple media. He's excited to continue the same ethic — news as a public service — at NYPR as the New Jersey and suburbs editor, drawing on the extraordinary talents of reporters including Karen Yi and Nancy Solomon. Lou lives in Philly (that commute!) with his partner and their two cats, about whom and about which he speaks incessantly.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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