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The message went online over the weekend and was marked “URGENT.”
“We need two more candidates for the school board in Washington Borough to help bring common sense back to Washington.”
It was retweeted by Josh Aikens, who has experience recruiting conservatives to run for local school boards. And as he said more than once in an Assembly campaign a few months ago, experience in winning too.
Today, Monday, was the filing deadline for those running in the November school board election.
The middle of summer was once a sleepy time for politics, but that’s no longer true.
The local school board in many towns has become the epicenter for the so-called culture wars – fights about books, curriculum, gay rights and the like, or everything “woke” as those on the right are wont to say.
Conservatives – as is seen by Aikens’ past success – began focusing on school boards two years ago, motivated by student mask requirements.
That movement has now spread to challenge a general belief that public schools are run by left wingers. That view is not new, but the activism, and at times anger, is.
Another leading statewide figure in this fight is Greg Quinlan of the Center for Garden State Families, a Christian family advocacy group.
Quinlan frequently attends school board meetings when the above topics are discussed.
He’s not exactly a shrinking violet, routinely calling the teachers’ union a Marxist organization.
That occasionally gives discomfort to Republican lawmakers in the room, some of whom are endorsed by the state teachers’ union. No matter, there is a larger battle to be won.
In a phone conversation today, Quinlan stressed the recent success conservatives have had winning school races and said he’s confident the same thing will happen this year.
But it may not be all that easy.
Liberal groups were pretty much asleep two years ago when it came to state school board races, but that has changed.
Say hello – again – to Tom Malinowski.
After losing his CD-7 House seat last year to Tom Kean Jr., Malinowski has a new project. He is the founder of a campaign called Districts for Democracy, which pledges to keep “culture wars and censorship out of our public schools.” It pledges to support candidates who believe in “freedom of inquiry, thoughts and expression for all.”
There are other groups as well pushing back, including the New Jersey Public Education Coalition, which was started by Mike Gottesman of Wayne.
Its website speaks of the need to stop the “radical right” from taking over school boards and “dismantling” public education.
Gottesman also was optimistic about the candidates his group and like-minded ones have recruited.
Naturally, no one will really know how effective the recruitment effort has been – by both sides – until campaigns actually begin this fall.
The school board dynamic here clearly is an interesting one.
By all accounts, this fall’s election looks to be a quiet one with the state Legislature topping the ballot. However, spirited school board fights in many towns could bubble up enthusiasm from the bottom of the ticket.
That remains to be seen, but Gottesman already is pinpointing some key districts.
For starters, they included Sparta, Colts Neck, Westwood and Bernards Township.
There has been controversy in all those districts about what’s become almost the norm these days – books, curriculum and gay rights.
Gottesman said part of his campaign will be talking to seniors.
There’s some irony here. Years ago, seniors were known for voting “no” on school budgets. Some people didn’t want them to vote. But now that voters no longer vote on school budgets – with a few rare exceptions – that’s no longer an issue.
Gottesman’s point is that seniors should care about the value of their home. His follow-up point is obvious – if book banning hurts a school district’s reputation, it’s going to adversely impact property values.
Around now, it’s worth wondering what the New Jersey School Board Association thinks about all this.
One understands that the association is in a tough spot; after all, it represents all school boards. That may explain the association’s following statement:
“As we approach the July 31 filing deadline for school board candidates, NJSBA would take this opportunity to remind candidates – and the general citizenry – that school board elections in New Jersey are nonpartisan.
Candidates may not be identified by political party on the ballot. That is not true in all states, and NJSBA believes that the nonpartisan nature of school board elections contributes to the strong system of public education that our state enjoys. It allows boards to concentrate on the central task at hand: ensuring that our schools help all children to learn and achieve their full potential.”
It really isn’t that simple anymore.
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