Senator Joe Pennacchio today chastised the Murphy Administration for the autocratic management of the New Jersey State Board of Education after several board members who opposed the controversial new sex curriculum standards were set to be replaced.

“These educators dared to disagree with the dubious new education direction, and for this, they are being thrown off the board,” said Pennacchio (R-26). “That isn’t governing. It is dictating, and it is something we’ve seen too often from Trenton in recent years.”

New members were nominated to the Board this week to replace others who voted against the new sex ed standards in 2020 and urged the Acting Commissioner of Education to reconsider those standards before they took effect this year.

“This iron-fisted action appears to be punitive, and it leaves no doubt where the Administration and Trenton Democrats stand on the sex education curriculum,” Pennacchio noted. “The intent is to stymie all discourse.

“It reeks of dictatorialism. They don’t want board members discussing it, they don’t want legislators discussing it, and they don’t want parents discussing it at board of education meetings in their own towns,” said the Senator.

The Comprehensive Health and Physical Education approved in 2020 and implemented this month requires second-grade students to discuss ways people express their gender; fifth graders to understand romantic and sexual feelings, masturbation and differentiate between sexual orientation and gender identity; and by grade eight, students will learn about vaginal, oral, and anal sex.

“The Administration has gone too far with these mandates, trampling parental rights and responsibilities for the sake of the liberal agenda,” Pennacchio said. “They don’t like to be challenged on it, and that’s why there will be three new puppets on the State board of ed. The education of our children has become politicized.”

Eleven of the 13 members on the State Board of Education have expired terms and are serving in holdover status until replacements are nominated and confirmed.