Mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman and his NJEA-funded NJ Public Education Coalition (NJPEC) will stop at nothing to impose their progressive education agenda on NJ school districts.  NJ citizens should be very concerned about the scorched-earth political campaigns Gottesman and NJPEC (with NJEA help) are bringing down on NJ school boards like North Hunterdon-Voorhees (NHV): vicious, personal attacks on parents and sitting school board members, mobs of organized NJPEC activists descending on a school board meeting, a state Assemblymen on the scene, and arranged media coverage. Apparently, you can do these sorts of things when you have NJEA funding and support.

Here’s Gottesman’s latest call-to-arms for the brewing January 23 battle in NHV.  NJPEC has staged a pre-meeting “prep rally” at the Hunterdon County library to “make signs, write or edit speeches, practice delivering speeches (with help from a drama teacher!), meet fellow allies and enjoy some snacks.” Democratic NJ Assembly Andrew Zwicker will lend his presence along with other celebrities.  Just like a political campaign, except that this is a regular school board meeting, not an election. 

Gottesman and NJPEC are hoping to mobilize so many activists (in NJEA-like red t-shirts) that the meeting will be forced to move from its traditional room to the high school auditorium.  All with the dutiful media in tow. Gottesman hopes to bludgeon NHV parents and the school board into submission with their scorched-earth, political-campaign-style tactics — all with the NJEA’s backing.  It’s not a fair fight.

Again, we note that school boards are largely made up of local parents who want a say in their children’s education.  They tend to reflect the values of the communities in which they live.

In NHV, a controversy has erupted about whether certain (progressive) books are appropriate for school libraries, especially for younger students.  Reasonable people can disagree about what should or should not be in libraries, but it is entirely legitimate for parents to express their views or push for new policies at the school board level.  That’s what school boards are for.

But that’s not how the bully Gottesman sees it.  He is bringing in all the firepower of a NJEA-funded, statewide organization to bear on NPV parents and board members with whom they disagree — during a regular school board meeting, not an election. 

NJ citizens should be very concerned. If Gottesman can do it in NHV, he can — and will — do it anywhere.  Regular school board meetings across the state will become scorched-earth political battlegrounds.  

We’ll ask the question that zealot Gottesman would never ask: is this good for the state?

We know where the NJEA stands on this issue, aligning perfectly with Gottesman and NJPEC.  By funding NJPEC, the NJEA is “putting its money where its mouth is.”  We ask whether NJ teachers would approve of this use of their highest-in-the-nation dues.  Not that they have a choice.