NJ Education Report

For a sense of the metamorphosis of school board races from afterthoughts to center-stage, look no further than Clinton Township in Hunterdon County. On Saturday there was what nj.com describes as a “violent confrontation during a noisy rally and counter-demonstration.”

Clinton Police Chief Cory Kubinak told reporters Robert Cusick, 57, of Asbury Park  hit Evelin Alvarez, 39, of Califon while he was trying to swat away her sign. One was there to support candidates who oppose the NJ’s Student Learning Standards for Health Education, specifically sex education. The other was there to protest against these candidates, who tried (and failed) to remove five books with LGBTQ themes from the  North Hunterdon-Voorhees Regional High School library: “Lawn Boy” by Jonathan Evison, “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson, “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson and “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” by Alison Bechel.

“It’s become a very loud, dangerous, disrespectful territory for a lot of school board members,” said Chris Cerf, former state education commissioner under Gov. Chris Christie. “There’s a shroud of fear that hangs over a lot of school board elections that did not before, and much more polarization and politicization now, all across the country.”