Fighting the culture wars.   Another New Jersey school district reports severe, post-pandemic disciplinary problems among its students resulting in chaotic schools and violence towards teachers.  Surely this is a major concern for teachers, yet the NJEA remains silent on the issue. NJEdReport reports that teachers in Asbury Park say the middle school is “in a constant state of mayhem” with “out of control” student behavior.  Recently, a teacher was jumped and seriously injured by two students, leading to an all-school lockdown. Teachers told NJEdReport that there is not enough s ..read more

We wanted to make sure our readers saw that New Jersey once again came in 50th out of 50 states in the Tax Foundation’s “2024 State Business Tax Climate Index,” which ranks the 50 states by how friendly their tax systems are to businesses.  THIS IS THE 8TH YEAR IN A ROW NEW JERSEY HAS COME IN DEAD LAST.  Notably, New Jersey has been dead last for EVERY SINGLE YEAR THAT PHIL MURPHY HAS BEEN GOVERNOR.  Clearly, having a vibrant private economy is not a priority of Murphy’s. This is very worrisome for New Jersey’s future because a healthy state economy requires a tax system that al ..read more

NorthJersey.com’s Mary Ann Koruth still can’t tell it straight when it comes to the “culture wars.”  She continues to steadfastly ignore massive NJEA spending — and therefore influence — on this year’s school board races. To be fair, her recent article on the school board races accurately declared that overall the results were mixed.  Both sides claimed that the majority of their endorsed candidates won, but each side had victories and losses.  Fair enough. But Koruth still chooses to describe those opposing the parental rights groups as “pro-public education,” which is exactly ..read more

We now have direct proof: anti-parent-group New Jersey Public Education Coalition (NJPEC) is a NJEA front, and its founder, mendacious Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman is a proven liar. Too bad for the voters who won’t have this information before they vote for their school boards tomorrow.   Sunlight has long had to rely on circumstantial evidence to build the case that NJPEC and its funder, dark-money Super PAC Education Truth Project (ETP), were NJEA/NEA fronts.  We now have direct proof that they are: below is a screenshot of the NJEA’s Super PAC, Garden State Forward’s r ..read more

Once again, NorthJersey.com’s Mary Ann Koruth just can’t tell it straight when it comes to the culture wars being fought in New Jersey school districts.  She adopts the pro-NJEA, “progressive” side’s framing of the issue and is remarkably incurious about the NJEA’s role. In her most recent piece on the groups involved in this year’s school board races, she breaks down the two camps as “advocates of greater parental control” on one side, and “advocates of public education” on the other.  But that’s not accurate. First, it implies that one side is pro-public education and the other isn ..read more

A governor who fails in his duty to educate New Jersey’s children is a failure as a governor.  ALL New Jersey children, including — especially — those who are struggling the most.  Like the Black and Latino kids who suffered the greatest learning loss from COVID-related school closures on Governor Murphy’s watch.  But Murphy is AWOL. We know that, due to the extended school closures, New Jersey had some of the worst learning loss in the nation. Last year, fewer than half of New Jersey students were proficient in ELA and only 35% in math on state tests.  The numbers were eve ..read more

As is well known in polling, if you want a certain response, you have to ask the right question.  The way you phrase the question makes all the difference.  Now we have a classic example of such polling in the New Jersey culture wars, and in particular over mandatory parental notification policies.  The NJEA has been out front opposing mandatory parental notification policies and was caught offsides by a highly credible Monmouth poll showing the vast majority of parents supported mandatory notification.  So the NJEA engineered a new poll to get the response it wanted.   ..read more

More mendacity from Michael “Hundreds of Millions” Gottesman and the NJ Public Education Coalition (NJPEC), this time in a deeply deceptive digital ad.  The bullying Gottesman likes to accuse his opponents of lying, but, using his terminology, who is really lying here?  Once again, it is Gottesman.  Will the facts cause InsiderNJ’s Fred Snowflack revise his article? The deceptive NJPEC YouTube ad was then taken as the gospel truth by InsiderNJ’s Fred Snowflack and amplified by his recent article on New Jersey’s culture wars.  Snowflack states that the “conservatives” — real ..read more

Looks like more slanted coverage of the culture wars by the NJ press corps.  This time it’s InsiderNJ’s Fred Snowflack.  We’re starting to see a pattern.   In his piece “Judicial Integrity and the Culture Wars,” Snowflack has this lede: “Sexualization of children … lies by the parent’s rights lobby … astonishment in Hanover.”  The clear implication is that the parent’s rights side — the “conservative” side, as Snowflack says — in the culture wars is lying. And, lo and behold, Snowflack believes the “liberal” (his word) side is telling the truth.  He approvingly ci ..read more

When Sunlight publishes a report, we send it to a press list that we have complied over the years.  One of the reporters on the list is Jay Lassiter of InsiderNJ.  Reporters are the filter through which many people get their news, and it is our view is that reporters should be unbiased and report the news without fear or favor.  Maybe some would see that as naive, but that’s our expectation. So we were surprised and disappointed at Lassiter’s response to our distribution of our report on NJEA President Sean Spiller using teachers’ dues to fund his personal political career. &nbs ..read more