The Importance of Local Control

There is a war for the most basic principles of freedom being fought in New Jersey— battles are being waged across the Garden State. From one end of the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route to the other, hometown patriots are standing up to a deeply disturbing policy pushed by the tyrannical regime who runs the state’s government and their proxies who occupy seats on boards of education. 

Fundamental to our American society is the nuclear family and parental rights are paramount to that unit. A child’s emotional and social health is of great importance. And unfortunately, the mental health of our youth has been overlooked for far too long. Smart phones, social media, cyber bullying, and various other pressures are impacting young people in ways we are only beginning to understand. Couple this with the fact that the current generation lost out on a year of school attendance in 2020-2021 due to the draconian COVID lockdowns.

My family makes a sacrifice to put our children in a local private religious school. As someone who went through the public school system, I chose not to send my children into that minefield.

Special interest groups, like teachers’ unions and administrators, are having a cataclysmic response to responsible parents who so much as question their motives on things unrelated to actually educating youth.  Drilling ideology into pliable minds instead of opening these minds to the incredible and endless fountain of literature, sciences, art, etc. 

As a father of four young children, I am blessed to witness the joy and wonder in them as they develop each day. Every parent knows well that time with children is precious and fleeting. They just grow up too fast. Kids are naturally impressionable and inquisitive. Just recently my daughter, who turned six, was asking me very tough questions about life and the world with such innocence and purity. Each day one of my kids will say something so accurate and hilarious which amazes me and my wife. My four year old son asked me why they don’t make broccoli that tastes like candy. 

The quality of education is abysmal considering the incredible amount of generous funding that gets poured into public schools. They then have the audacity to tell a parent like me that I can’t know something going on with my child, whom I love. It is a dereliction of duty for any school board member to allow this policy to continue in their district.

Efforts like policy #5756 forbids public school employees from informing parents of their child’s mental health from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The formation of a young person is first the responsibility of their parents and guardians, it takes place in the home. Schools are an extension of this and concerns regarding the wellbeing of a child of any age should be brought to a parent. This feels like common sense, right?

For example, if the student was failing math class, the report card would reflect this, and the family would be informed about academic shortcomings. There would be a number of ways to address this both at home and in school. Better yet, the parents and the school would come up with a strategy in harmony to get the student back on track. The school could make sure the student was receiving extra support to tackle this area of concern while the family may employ a private tutor. 

Why is it then that the state is so dead set on withholding information about a child related to their mental, emotional and social welfare? Like many parents, I just don’t understand that line of thinking. 

Four brave school boards stood up and rejected this new policy; Hanover, Middletown, Marlboro, and Manalapan. Then the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General filed an administrative complaint against them. This meant that the parents of children in Hanover would not receive notices of their childs’ wellbeing— a huge blow to parental rights and a direct contradiction to what the school board voted for.  

It really burned the unelected bureaucrats in that office that moms and dads in Hanover would receive notice about their kids’ wellbeing in a particular circumstance. They just couldn’t stand for that.  

The hard-earned tax dollars of families get poured into schools every year and it is truly a shame that parents are now being left in the dark about how their child may be behaving in the classroom. This has to stop.

The men who gave their lives in the battle of Trenton were not doing so to have a future where Trenton would be fighting a battle on local decision making. “This policy (5756) promotes division amongst families and sets a bad tone for what public schools look to accomplish”, said Jennifer Makar who serves on the AF-Northeast Leadership Council and is an elected member of the Roselle Park Board of Education.

After the New Jersey Attorney General conceded in the state superior court that policy 5756 was not something mandated for every district to adopt, it put the opportunity to repeal, adopt, or replace in the capable hands of every local board of education in the state. “The decision on whether to adopt, amend, or repeal Policy 5756 should be a local decision, not a state one. Local elected officials know more about the local issues facing residents more than a court judge in Trenton”, said Jeremy Li an AF member who serves on the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education. 

This messy situation has given rise to a tremendous and flourishing movement across the state. One that is organic, grassroots, and compiled of an incredibly diverse range of people, many of whom have never been active in rallying against the evils of government totalitarianism. It is not a movement that is exclusive to parents with young children currently in the schools. This ground swell of activism is made up of allies to these parents; young adults who recently graduated from the public school systems, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles who had enough of the deceit and are horrified by this policy. 

The good news is that many boards have boldly taken corrective action, oftentimes in defiance of radical out of town interests who march in to intimidate and put the pressure on those casting a vote in support of local control. Sadly far too many boards have not changed course or lack  the votes needed to repeal or replace.

Before this policy is adopted further we shall not forget Luke 12:2-3 “There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.” We should not be letting schools keep secrets from parents. 

Against all odds, 250 years ago in New Jersey, ordinary folks rose up and opposed a much larger and well-funded adversary. They did indeed “mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” to grant us freedom from subjection from a far off and disconnected ruler. It is that similar spirit which is awakening bands of patriots, community to community to reclaim local control from a repressive power.