Story at a glance
- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) this week said he believed parents should have a say in their children’s education, but added that he believes some people are taking up the issue to “score political points.”
- New state education standards — some of which relate to sexual orientation and gender identity — adopted in 2020 are set to go into effect this fall.
- Parents and state officials are now pushing back on the implementation of the new standards, expressing renewed concern for how they may negatively affect children.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) on Monday defended new state sex and gender education standards, though admitted he believes parents should “absolutely” have a voice when it comes to what their children are being taught.
New Jersey in 2020 adopted new social and sexual health education standards — set to take effect this fall — to help students better “respect and accept” each other’s differences, including gender identity and gender expression.
“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 reporters Monday, Fox News reported.
But Murphy added that he believes some politicians have insincerely taken up the issue of parental rights and have been railing against sexual orientation and gender identity being brought up in schools simply to “score political points.”
America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.
“I say that on behalf of the LGBTQIA+ communities,” Murphy said. “Let’s everybody not use this to divide us.”
Still, the governor said he would be willing to “entertain” the idea of adjusting the standards if enough parents said they did not support them, according to Fox News.
Under the new standards, students by the fifth grade are expected to know, among other things, the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity.
By the eighth grade, students in New Jersey should be able to distinguish between “gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation,” according to the new standards, which replace guidelines set in 2014.
In letters sent this week to Murphy and state Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D), New Jersey Senate Republicans called for state leadership to halt the implementation of the new education standards and hold public hearings on the changes to “empower parents who feel ignored.”
“We have heard from a rapidly growing number of parents who are extremely concerned after learning about changes to state curriculum standards related to sex education that they believe are inappropriate for their children or in conflict with their values,” senators wrote, arguing that the new standards were adopted at a time when “most people were focused on navigating the many day-to-day impacts of the pandemic.”
Legislators in dozens of states this year have argued that lessons related to sexual orientation and gender identity don’t belong in the classroom. Laws have already been signed in Florida and Alabama barring educators from addressing those topics in a manner that is not “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for their students.
LGBTQ+ advocates have pushed back on claims that subjects like sexual orientation and gender identity are too mature for young children, warning that restrictive curriculum legislation will harm LGBTQ+ youth, who are already facing what some medical professionals have categorized as a mental health crisis.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, New Jersey Senate Education Chair Vin Gopal (D) called on Murphy and the state Department of Education to “provide clarity” on the new standards given “the amount of misinformation and questions from parents.”
“I have formally called on the Department of Education and the Governor’s office to provide clarity on all of these items and issue it publicly before any further action is taken on implementation,” Gopal wrote.
New Jersey last year adopted a law requiring state schools to include instruction in kindergarten through 12th grade on “diversity and inclusion in an appropriate place in the curriculum.” That includes promoting diversity “in connection with gender and sexual orientation.”
changing america copyright.
