NJEA Ads Are False: Parents Upset About Sex Ed Policies Are Not “Extremists,” They Are the Mainstream

It turns out that a majority of public school parents distrust public schools when it comes to teaching about gender and sexuality.  Contrary to this reality, a recent NJEA ad campaign calls parents who dare to speak up about such issues “extremists.”  But a new poll shows that the NJEA’s “extremist” label is false.

In its 54th annual poll, PDK International (a professional organization for teachers) found that when it comes to trusting public schools to teach about gender and sexuality, these parents are not extremists, they are in the mainstream.   Overall, 72% of public school parents trust public school teachers, but only 46% trust teachers to teach about gender and sexuality issues.  In other words, a majority of public school parents do not trust public school teachers when it comes to teaching about gender and sexuality – even thought they overwhelmingly trust them overall.

This distrust of teaching gender and sexuality cuts across the political spectrum.  Among all adults, only 45% of liberals trust teachers to teach about gender and sexuality and only 32% of conservatives do.  Again, that means a majority of both liberals and conservatives do not trust public school teachers when it comes to teaching about gender and sexuality.

The undeniable conclusion of this polling is that New Jersey parents who expressed concern about the state’s sex ed guidelines and the teaching about gender and sexuality to their children are not extremists at all: they are the mainstream of both public school parents and all adults across the political spectrum.  In light of the PDK International poll, the NJEA ads are demonstrably false.

And let us remember what these parents are pushing back against .  Recall that it is the NJEA that is training teachers to become political activists pushing for truly radical education policies at the local school district level – policies such as teaching about transgenderism to early elementary schoolchildren.  Who are the real extremists here?

The NJEA ads also accuse parents of bringing politics into schools, but the facts show that it is the NJEA that is injecting politics into schools.  As Sunlight previously reported, the NJEA has dispatched its army of field reps to push local teachers to run candidates for school board against parents seeking greater control over local education policies.  Clearly, the NJEA ad campaign seeks to bolster that effort.

Of course, these same parents are property taxpayers whose tax dollars fund the NJEA via automatically withheld teachers’ dues.  So the NJEA is using parents’ tax dollars to try to defeat them in local school board elections and seeks to push teachers into the front lines of local political battles.  So who is really injecting politics into schools?  

Sunlight asks whether New Jersey teachers truly support the NJEA’s actions here.  They have no say in how their highest-in-the-nation dues are spent and their union is pushing them to take sides against parents whether they like it or not.

Once again, the NJEA has a lot of explaining to do.