Battles are still raging in several New Jersey schools over policies that would disclose transgender students’ identities to their parents. And after this month’s school board elections, leaders of one of the state’s largest “parents’ rights” groups say they’ve got the momentum on their side.
But a progressive organization formed last year to combat what it calls “MAGA extremists” on matters of school policy — including protecting trans kids from being outed to their families — says gains by parents’ rights candidates are far more modest than many political observers expected.
Leaders of both groups agree on two things:
- More New Jersey school districts will likely craft new rules about how to treat transgender students — replacing versions based on state guidance that say trans kids’ identities should be respected, and should only be revealed to families under limited circumstances.
- New Jersey won’t soon go back to the days when Board of Education elections were sleepy affairs, divorced from culture wars and national politics.
“It’s a win for us if [parents’ rights candidates] won and it’s a win for us if they lost – because they’re angry now and ready to take it to the next level,” said Nikki Stouffer, executive director of the NJ Project, part of a conservative movement that argues too many state regulations and local school board policies shut parents out of their children’s lives.
NJ Project grew out of a Facebook group where parents’ railed against remote learning and student mask mandates during the pandemic, and against sex education guidelines members said exposed young children to too much explicit information.
More than 500 districts first adopted policies based on model language from a consulting group in 2019, to conform to the state guidance. The rules are commonly called “5756” policies, for the number most often assigned to them by school boards. But several revoked those policies this year, objecting to…
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