New Jersey parents rip gender identity lessons for first graders: 'It's concerning'
Fox News correspondent Nate Foy speaks to concerned parents who are speaking out against New Jersey’s new sex education curriculum.
Liberal Gov. Phil Murphy has truly taken New Jersey off the deep-end by implementing an outrageously inappropriate sex education curriculum to children as young as 6 and 7 years old.
But parents should not sit by and let their children be victims of the far-left’s woke agenda. Parents must fight back.
NJ GOV. MURPHY DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM 2ND GRADERS LEARNING GENDER IDENTITY
Phil Murphy, the Democratic Party nominee for governor, arrives to vote in Middletown, New Jersey, Nov. 7, 2017. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson)
Murphy’s sex education agenda was developed in secrecy, when New Jersey was in the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 that Murphy himself imposed. Part of the new state teaching standards for the fall will include lesson plans on "gender identity" in second grade, telling children they may have "boy parts" but "feel like a girl." Another outrageous example: the curriculum encourages sharing a website to students as young as 9 that discusses "porn," saying "a lot of people watch it" and "it’s free." After days of backlash, Gov. Murphy has since said he’s "willing to entertain" revisions to the curriculum. But none of this should have been on the table in the first place.
As the founder of Jersey 1st, a grassroots taxpayer organization, I can tell you that parents across the Garden State are appalled and outraged. Last week, Jersey 1st held our first education task force meeting. And over the past 30 days, hundreds of participants reached out to us—each ready to take back our schools and fight for parents’ rights.
And parents have ample reason to do so. While the governor and his appointees are pushing their extreme, progressive political agenda in public schools, our kids are falling further behind in basic academics. According to a 2021 report, 272,000 New Jersey children in grades 3 through 8 are falling behind in either language arts or math. This year, the state’s "Start Strong" assessments for students in grades 4 through 10, revealed that a majority of students now need "some support" or "strong support" in math or English language arts. This is not acceptable.
It is no surprise our public schools are losing enrollment, thanks to the governor’s disastrous lockdown policies. Last year, there were 41,351 fewer students enrolled in public schools compared to the previous year. Parents who can afford it are pulling their kids out of public school and many are delaying enrolling their children in public Pre-K and Kindergarten programs, seeking alternatives that align with their values. Sadly, lower income families do not have these options.
That it is why it is so important that parents reach out to their legislators and individual school boards to demand they empower parents with more options and that they reject this inappropriate sex curriculum which comes at the expense of our kids’ academic education. Parents, not politicians, have the power to get our schools back on track.
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Some legislators, like Senate Republican Leader Steven Oroho, are coming alongside parents to oppose Murphy’s sex curriculum, introducing a bill which would give parents the right to opt in instead of only being allowed to opt out of the sexual education curriculum for grades 2 through 5. This bill must be given priority consideration right now.
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It’s time to take back our schools and put the focus on academics. Our taxpayer dollars should be funding our children’s education and not to advance Gov. Murphy’s extreme progressive agenda.
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