If you’re a parent and have the audacity to think your children actually belong to you, New Jersey state legislators would like to point and laugh at your expense. Sure, moms, you brought them into the world, but you really endured the morning sickness, sleepless nights, and body changes to deliver new life to the State. Dads, you know you bust your butt at work, fighting traffic and exhaustion on both ends of the shift, to provide for your family until the real Big Daddy steps in; you’re just a filler, right?
Now that I’ve rightfully raised some hackles, you’re prepared to hear it straight: New Jersey thinks you are ignorant, incompetent parents who should not be making decisions for your offspring, especially when it comes to their indoctrination. Indoctrination, not education. Words matter.
This is not a left or right issue, nor is it even a New Jersey thing, so feel free to share this link with your Democrat and independent buddies (I know you don’t have any Commie friends) — this is an issue for anyone who has, might have, had, or cares about children.
Parents choose to homeschool their kids for a litany of reasons. Perhaps they want a religious curriculum but cannot afford private school tuition, or they have a child who does not do well in large, noisy groups. Maybe they just love spending time with their kids and want to witness the miracle of their growth. All of these (and more!) are respectable, valid reasons to keep your kid out of public schools. With curricula being easier than ever to get, homeschooling is on the rise, and that has Big Daddy Trenton quite concerned.
Senate Bill 5825 codifies some administrative things like notifying the superintendent that your child is going to be homeschooled using [insert curriculum of choice] taught by [your name], but then it rips the rug right out from under your rule-following feet. You see, dear parents, the bill reads that the curriculum you personally selected for your child must “be aligned with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards.”
What they don’t tell you is that any political reason you have for wanting to keep your child out of public schools — DEI, climate change, discussions about sex and gender, race — must be included in the curriculum you teach. Oh, well, then I’ll just teach it my way! Oh, dear parent, they won’t let you because once a year, you and your student have to be inspected by an “qualified evaluator” identified by the State to make sure what you teach is in lockstep with what the State teaches.
If you wanted to teach about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion being un-American because it limits opportunity for all and disregards merit performance, sorry, but that public education psychologist from your district will not let that fly.
Say you wanted to teach actual climate science and not alarmism; if the public school teacher doesn’t think your child is sufficiently freaked out, that’s a big problem.
Heaven forbid you teach your children about God creating Adam and Eve in His own image, that sex is a sacred union reserved for marriage, and that respect for your body is only as great as the respect you show others, your religion may have been around for thousands of years but it’s not a “21st century theme,” and that is mandatory, so break out the bananas and condoms.
I hope you’re ready to guide your middle schooler through the complicated concept of segregating and labeling people because “political, economic, and social contributions of persons with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people” is also required.
You see, Moms and Pops, Big Daddy caught on to your evasion of his indoctrination and is coming to collect his pound of flesh. His henchman, Democrat Rep. Sterley Stanley, introduced the bill last month, and while it has not yet been brought to the floor, it’s in the queue, dressed in deception and convolution.
Whether you homeschool or not, bills like this must be defeated in the name of liberty. The State has already clawed its way into countless nooks and crannies of our lives; the healthy relationship between parents and children should be sacred. If New Jersey succeeds in its invasion, it will not be long before other states follow suit. How long before your state-permitted freedom is on the chopping block? Who says it isn’t already?
If you don’t have children, you may be wondering what the big deal is or why it matters so much. To answer that, we must consider the end game: why does the State care so much about what and how a child learns? Isn’t that a duty that’s supposed to be carried out anyway? Unfortunately, the government is not interested in nurturing innovative and free-thinking scholars; they’re only interested in conformity.
Before you accuse me of unreasonable cynicism, consider the proof:
- Standardized tests with one way of performing and one way of evaluating
- Millions of dollars for school leaders to follow directions from political leaders
- Teacher unions that refuse to support competition between teachers or schools
- Required and unnecessary indoctrination of teachers
- Sterile school buildings that resemble factories or prisons
- Bureaucracy that is designed to hinder change and parental influence.
At the risk of sounding dystopian, a population of cogs in a machine is a whole lot easier to rule than free-thinkers who can challenge the status quo. If you think this sounds extreme, you might not have been paying attention because politicians have been hunting for Yes (Wo)Men ever since Alexander Hamilton pushed the Whiskey Tax to pay for Revolutionary War debt. It’s a tax to pay for a war we fought against taxes. Make it make sense. That’s politics.
New Jersey politicians see the whole education scheme, and they can’t operate efficiently with meddling parents calling for “school choice.” Their solution? Give parents the illusion of school choice in this short, easy-to-read bill with details buried so deep in the catacombs of legislation that they’ll be blindsided when the truth smacks them in the face.
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