Star-Ledger editorial finally admits that parents have the right to know

By Rubashov

It took a long time, but in a Sunday editorial the editorial board of the Star-Ledger finally admitted that “parents should give input on sex ed”. The editors of the state’s largest newspaper finally embraced the democratic principle that the governed – the taxed – should have the right to know what their children are being taught and that education bureaucracies should seek and receive their consent. Basic democracy, but it sure did take a long time for them to see it.
   
Of course, they had to sour the moment. Much in the way of an abusive, egotistical husband – the editorial board gave its mea culpa only after cataloging the faults of the injured spouse: “Sure, I’ve been wrong, but she’s a… bigot. I was wrong, but she had it coming.” Name-calling has never been a good look for you.
 
The editorial board went far afield in its invective, even noting their disdain for Tucker Carlson and his red light – which was funny coming from folks who had waxed so lyrically about the joys of Newark’s “Little Theatre”. Talk about red light!  
 
The Star-Ledger editorial board is just part of a long list of politicians, interest group lobbyists, and establishment media who have for years pushed their ideas on the indoctrination of school children without the involvement of parents. In fact, there are numerous laws designed to block parents from knowing – placing the education bureaucracy between parent and child – while requiring parents to pay the highest property taxes in America to fund that education bureaucracy.
 
In a summary of changes made in the updated education standards approved by the unelected State Board of Education in June 2020, the New Jersey School Boards Association noted all the instances when the word “parents” was cut out of the new standards. For example: “Parents and guardians impact the development of their children physically, socially and emotionally” was replaced with, “Family members impact the development of their children physically, socially and emotionally.”
 
For some education bureaucrats and interest group lobbyists, “parents” evidently don’t exist – or it’s a concept they’d like to consign to the scrap heap. What they don’t want them to stop doing – whatever they choose to rename them – is paying higher and higher property taxes to fund the education bureaucracy.
 
Yesterday’s editorial marks a sea-change however, with the Star-Ledger joining such former advocates as Governor Phil Murphy and Senator Vin Gopal in questioning what they had so recently pushed. Senator Gopal co-sponsored the law that created the curriculum problem. Governor Murphy signed it. The Star-Ledger praised it. But now there is a growing recognition that they’ve screwed up in a very big way and that they need to make a course correction before it is too late. This is from yesterday’s editorial:
 
Some of the sample materials posted online as a resource for teachers and distributed to parents in Westfield were too specific, as Sen. Holly Schepisi, a Republican, pointed out. For instance: Teachers are instructed to promote a website called Amaze and its YouTube channel to kids as young as 9 for additional information on sex ed, and while some of these videos are quite good, others, like one about how watching pornography is “normal,” just aren’t something most parents want to show their fifth grader.
 
This is a change from earlier in the week, when the Star-Ledger trotted out four of the interest group lobbyists who have been brought in by politicians and education bureaucrats. It has been these outside groups who have pushed the most controversial materials and stirred the greatest concern amongst parents. At the beginning of last week they were being brought in for a fightback – now everyone is distancing themselves from them.

This is who Politico selected to provide "unbiased" coverage of education issues in New Jersey.

Apparently, Politico didn’t get the memo. Late last week, they tapped LGBTQ+ advocate Carly Sitrin (who is also their education reporter), who attempted to make the debate over curriculum a partisan issue, when it plainly isn’t. The people paying the highest property taxes in America to fund their education bureaucracy have a right to know and a say in what that money is being used for. It's not blue or red – it’s just basic democracy.

Carly Sitrin’s Politico column highlighted the fact that some Republicans are part of the problem. Her column quoted a “New Jersey GOP strategist” who appeared to accuse some elected Republicans of using “extreme right-wing buzzwords” about the curriculum issue. According to Sitrin’s column, this GOP strategist said that this didn’t “resonate with the typical New Jersey Republican voter who leans more socially moderate”.

Well, that’s not what recent polling tells us. According to a fresh poll of GOP and Undeclared voters, conducted in a Democrat-controlled congressional district at about the same time Sitrin was writing her Politico piece, voters are very engaged:

DO YOU APPROVE OR DISAPPROVE OF MANDATING THAT CHILDREN IN PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS BE TAUGHT LESSONS ABOUT GENDER IDENTITY, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, AND LGBTQ ISSUES.

APPROVE 4.0
Strongly 1.2
Somewhat 2.8
DISAPPROVE 93.8
Somewhat 2.8
Strongly 91.0
DK/REFUSED 2.2

That’s pretty lopsided. Not much room for confusion. Which might explain why so many former supporters of these curriculum mandates are having second thoughts.

Carly Sitrin (She/Her) is POLITICO’s Education Reporter… and she is “woke”

By Rubashov

There are few giveaways as plain as this one.
 
Carly Sitrin, a reliably Establishment reporter with roots in Boston’s PBS network, wrote a work of apology on behalf of New Jersey’s political establishment. It was an attempt to publicly forgive them for the damage they’ve done to the curriculum the state’s school children are learning from. But Sitrin went further. She attempted to blame those who noticed.
 
The word “transgender” didn’t even exist until the 1960s. Before 2012, in fact, there was no scientific literature on girls ages 11 to 21 ever having developed gender dysphoria at all. Despite what Sitrin and others would have you believe, this isn’t a Democrat or Republican issue – so put away those blue and red pom-poms. But it has been a growing concern among parents and reformers within the medical establishment, who have observed a ceaseless rise in the use of pharmaceutical and surgical interventions to treat children who express “discomfort” with their gender identity. That is a major departure from the past, when clinicians used “talking therapies” to help children adjust. Of course, the medication of children in general has for some time been a cause for alarm to parents and forward-thinkers in the medical community.
 
Then there’s the religion thing. The transgender movement is a faith-based ideology akin to religion. And just as some believe in trans-substantiation (that bread can be made flesh and wine made blood) those who subscribe to transgenderism believe that DNA can be altered, chromosomes undone, simply by the action of the will. They believe that an individual, born male, can will himself into being female – and vice versa.
 
The outward sign of adherence to faith-based transgenderism is the use of pronouns after your last name. If you believe, you use “preferred” pronouns after your last name. Carly Sitrin (She/Her) is a believer. And she advertises her belief on her LinkedIn page and such. She tells who she is and what she believes in. It is her faith and it is natural enough for her to defend her faith – even if that means placing faith before journalism. We should expect nothing different from her.
 
Numerous people on the Left have suffered the wrath of this new, thrusting, proselytizing faith. The author of the Harry Potter novels had to go into hiding because she suggested that women were there own thing. The author Camille Paglia suffered similarly. Feminists like Kara Dansky have been leading a fightback from the Left. Her book, The Abolition of Sex: How the “Transgender” Agenda Harms Women and Girls, has been burnt in public.
 
In her Politico story, Carly Sitrin (She/Her), asks parents to forget what they saw when Governor Phil Murphy sent all those kids home from school over the threat from COVID. Distance learning, the children at home, learning side by side with their parents, is what ignited the current debate. Parents saw, they experienced it first-hand. They cannot be made to unsee – no matter the efforts of Carly Sitrin (She/Her) and a hundred like her.
 
Carly Sitrin (She/Her) attempts to argue that if something isn’t spelled out in law, it isn’t mandated. She knows better. She knows that laws are often written very loosely. Heck, we argue over that with the Second Amendment.
 
Laws are written loosely so that the establishment bureaucracy can interpret them as broadly (or as narrowly) as they wish. The law (An Act concerning diversity and inclusion instruction in school districts and supplementing chapter 35 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes), sponsored by Senator Vin Gopal and signed by Governor Murphy in March of last year, at the root of the current curriculum uproar is an example of such loose and subjective language:
 
C.18A:35-4.36a Curriculum to include instruction on diversity and inclusion.
1. a. Beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, each school district shall incorporate instruction on diversity and inclusion in an appropriate place in the curriculum of students in grades kindergarten through 12 as part of the district’s implementation of the New Jersey Student Learning Standards.
b. The instruction shall:
(1) highlight and promote diversity, including economic diversity, equity, inclusion, tolerance, and belonging in connection with gender and sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, disabilities, and religious tolerance;
(2) examine the impact that unconscious bias and economic disparities have at both an individual level and on society as a whole; and
(3) encourage safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments for all students regardless of race or ethnicity, sexual and gender identities, mental and physical disabilities, and religious beliefs.
c. The Commissioner of Education shall provide school districts with sample learning activities and resources designed to promote diversity and inclusion.

To understand how all that aspirational language will take form, we need to look at an earlier piece of legislation, also supported by Vin Gopal. It is called “An Act establishing the Transgender Equality Task Force to assess legal and societal barriers to equality and provide recommendations to Legislature.”
 
2.    a.  There is hereby created a task force to be known as the “Transgender Equality Task Force.” The purpose of the task force shall be to assess the legal and societal barriers to equality for transgender individuals in the State, and provide recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature on how to ensure equality and improve the lives of transgender individuals, with particular attention to the following areas:
     (1)   healthcare, including, but not limited to, access to healthcare providers that are trained in transgender medical issues, including sexual health;
     (2)   long term care for the chronically ill and senior citizens in the transgender population;
     (3)   education;
     (4)   higher education;
     (5)   housing, including, but not limited to, homelessness prevention and reduction for transgender youth and adults;
     (6)   employment; and
     (7)   criminal justice, including raising transgender awareness among law enforcement through training, and facilitating the appropriate placement of transgender individuals in correctional facilities based on an individual’s gender identity.
     b.    The Transgender Equality Task Force shall consist of 17 members as follows… a representative of the Department of Education whose duties or expertise includes protecting the rights of minority students or eliminating discrimination in the delivery of educational programs, policies, or initiatives
…one public member to be appointed by the Governor, who shall be a representative of a social service agency that provides services and supports to transgender individuals; a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union; a representative of Garden State Equality; and a representative of The Gender Rights Advocacy Association of New Jersey.
 
Note that the law is specific enough to include the special interest groups making the policy recommendations, but loose in its description of what those policies are. Fair enough, the latter might scare voters (like it has) and, as Ronald Reagan said, “Personnel is policy.” Government doesn’t write the textbooks or lesson guides. It just picks those involved that do. In this way, politicians like Phil Murphy and Vin Gopal can say, “Not my bad.” And writers like Carly Sitrin (She/Her) can try to cover for them.
 
Except that Murphy sent all those kids home and parents saw it with their own eyes. And they can’t unsee it.

Abigail Shrier is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author of Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters (2020). A graduate of Columbia College, University of Oxford, and Yale Law School, her work regularly appears in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and other publications.

Finally, we must applaud Carly Sitrin (She/Her) for getting Senator Holly Schepisi’s own consultant – the company that administers the Facebook page on which the good Senator has posted so much good information – to essentially attack her:

“New Jersey GOP strategist Chris Russell said those kinds of extreme right-wing buzzwords aren’t effective in the state and don’t resonate with the typical New Jersey Republican voter who leans more socially moderate, but he said Republicans should still find a way to tap into that parental outrage.”

Hey, put away those pom-poms, this isn’t about party politics. This is something much larger. It brings people who think of themselves as “Left” together with people who say they are “Right”. This is about children. It's about the future.