How Culture War Issues Impact Nj S School Board Election Nj Spotlight

Tuesday's elections will show whether parental rights drive the vote Joanna Gagis, Senior Correspondent | November 6, 2023 | NJ Decides 2023, Education Clashes over local school board races on the ballot could bring more voters to the polls this year, with some saying they could even potentially overshadow the state legislative races. The normally sleepy local elections has become highly politicized this summer and fall, as candidates spent the cycle sparring over so-called culture war issues like “parental rights” and protections for transgender students in public... That has played out in communities such as Middletown, where Jacqueline Tobacco, vice president of Board of Education, said parental rights have become a dominant issue: “Parental rights has taken center stage in this... Clip: 11/6/2023 | 4m 23sVideo has Closed Captions | CC

Tuesday's election will show whether parental rights will be a part of that vote Clashes over local school board races on the ballot could bring more voters to the polls this year. The normally sleepy election has become highly politicized, as candidates spent the cycle sparring over so-called culture war issues like "parental rights" and protections for transgender students in public schools. These topics have the potential to fuel or eclipse the upcoming legislative races. Problems playing video? Report a Problem | Closed Captioning Feedback

Before you submit an error, please consult our Video Help page. Clashes over local school board races on the ballot could bring more voters to the polls this year. The normally sleepy election has become highly politicized, as candidates spent the cycle sparring over so-called culture war issues like "parental rights" and protections for transgender students in public schools. These topics have the potential to fuel or eclipse the upcoming legislative races. After decades of nonpartisan local elections for board of education spots, New Jersey has seen a handful of very contentious races over the past few years. About a month to go before the Nov.

5 school board elections, 1,804 candidates were registered with 1,487 open seats statewide. That averaged to just 1.21 candidates per seat, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association. A closer look at all 21 counties shows some clusters of competitive races. More than half (58%) of this year's school board candidates were incumbents looking to keep a seat — 1,042 individuals. 📬 Get our editors' essential reads sent weekly to your inbox with The Gist newsletter. Dozens of people, some on their knees, some clutching rosaries, some weeping, gathered in small circles and prayed for God’s help in what some were calling the next American Revolution.

Children carried handmade signs and banners. One neatly lettered sign read, “Protect me from the state.’’ Another said, “Freedom.’’ Several senior citizens quietly sang church hymns and said they were preparing for the fight of their lives. This was the scene on an otherwise tranquil morning last summer, when the New Jersey state school board gathered in Trenton to vote on changes that would implement new policies and protections for LGBTQ+... The new policy bristles with acronyms and legalistic definitions of terms like cisgender, gender queer, gender expansive and ASAB (assigned sex at birth). But, in simplest terms, the policy is about freedom for transgender students to call themselves what they want, take part in the gender-segregated classes and activities where they feel most comfortable, and, most controversially,... Clip: 11/6/2023 | 4m 23sVideo has Closed Captions | CC

Tuesday's election will show whether parental rights will be a part of that vote Clashes over local school board races on the ballot could bring more voters to the polls this year. The normally sleepy election has become highly politicized, as candidates spent the cycle sparring over so-called culture war issues like "parental rights" and protections for transgender students in public schools. These topics have the potential to fuel or eclipse the upcoming legislative races. Problems playing video? Report a Problem | Closed Captioning Feedback

Before you submit an error, please consult our Video Help page. In the end, New Jersey voted for moderation. That’s my take-away on yesterday’s legislative and school board elections: While Republicans banked on the culture wars— scare tactics about parental rights in schools, LGBTQ issues, and book bans—they didn’t take into account voters’... In addition, they failed to muster strong candidates or compete with Democrats on fund-raising. As Joey Fox at the Globe ruminates, “financial disparity allowed Democrats to simply drown out any Republican attacks with their own messaging on abortion, property tax relief, and other Democratic-friendly issues.” That’s not to say that all school board candidates aligned with conservative groups like Moms for Liberty and the New Jersey Project were losers last night.

Some won. But, says Matt Friedman of Politico, “Republicans decided to focus on the school culture wars. That was a huge flop. Trans student issues, sex education and books that include frank depictions of sex sure riled up some school board meetings, but it doesn’t look like they did anything to help Republicans at the polls.” I'm sure we'll hear lots of criticism of the GOP establishment from its most right-wing activists. But they pushed the party to embrace the school culture war issues.

And they flopped big time. “It looks like a pretty bad night for Republicans,” Mike DuHaime, a Republican strategist told NJ Spotlight Tuesday night. “In fact they’re losing some of the gains they made two years ago.” Eight months after changes to the state’s K-12 sex education standards became the latest issue to spark shouting matches at New Jersey's school board meetings, voters finally had their say on Tuesday. And the results are mixed. Which side prevailed in the polarized school board races — was it the anti-woke, parental rights candidates, or the moderates and progressives?

There's no clear answer, as many candidates running on opposite platforms won seats on the same board, and only in a few cases did an entire slate rout another. Some of the most heated races were in the tiniest suburban districts with mostly white voters — a trend absent from the state’s large urban districts, such as Paterson, where the mostly Black and... In Tenafly, a 3,500-student district, a group of three incumbents won by a wide margin against a trio that rejected the state’s latest sex education mandate and falsely alleged that Tenafly schools were teaching... However, in Sparta, a 3,100-student district, the winning slate of six candidates, Sparta Students First, ran together as conservatives. They included two incumbents who voted against the school’s sex education curriculum. Neighboring Sussex County districts Hardyston and Frankford also saw victories for parental rights candidates, who are generally conservative and against implementing changes made to sex and gender education in the state Department of Education's...

Slates in all three towns were advised by Arise NJ, a nonprofit group that works with school board candidates. Arise NJ has also aligned with parental rights candidates who protested mask or vaccine mandates during the pandemic, a movement that quickly grew to have groups attending school board meetings to protest alleged left-wing... The deadline to file for NJ school board elections was this week Brenda Flanagan, Senior Correspondent | August 3, 2023 | Education, Politics The deadline was this week for candidates seeking to run for local school boards in New Jersey. Because of culture-war battles over book banning, diversity and equity and the curriculum itself, the elections are expected to draw a lot more heat and attention than usual.

Darcy Draeger heads Districts for Democracy, a political action committee with a focus on diversity and equity in public schools, as well as book banning. It was founded by former U.S. Rep Tom Malinowski. “To run for school board, you need money. You need money for lawn signs, you need money to send mailings. And that means you have to fundraise.

It can get expensive,” Draeger said.

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