Rulemaking Petition Submitted
As we shared with you last week, the Pacific Justice Institute has teamed up with us at the New Jersey Family Policy Center to take our first step in exhausting our administrative remedies to repeal the discriminatory behavior of the New Jersey Board of Education in adopting amendments to N.J.A.C. 6A:7, Managing for Equality and Equity in Education.
A 24-page Rule Making Petition was submitted on Tuesday, August 8 to the New Jersey Department of Education. Technically, this process is required before filing a legal motion within the court system. Shawn Hyland, our Director of Advocacy, is listed as the Petitioner on behalf of New Jersey Family Policy Center. We seek to appeal many of the adopted amendments including, but not limited to: the Board’s amendments to remove all gender nouns and pronouns, prohibiting parents from participating in professional development trainings, separating human sexuality (sex ed) classes and sports teams by gender identity instead of biological sex, and forcing schools to develop and use curriculum that teaches a religious secular humanistic view of sex, gender, and morals.
(Portion of Rule Making Petition Page 4)
This Board’s amendments offend our country and courts’ long-standing tradition and adherence to a simple principle: the Board may not establish a “religion of secularism” in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion, thus, “preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe.”
Clearly, the Board’s adoption of these amendments seeks to “compel affirmation” of incompatible religious views. Such action burdens Christian religious beliefs. Students and parents should not be forced to leave their religious beliefs at the schoolhouse door to receive a public education from the State of New Jersey.
The President of the Board and the Commissioner of Education now has until Oct 9, 2023 to decide a course of action for our petition. We are confident that this petition justifies a contested hearing in the Administrative Office of Law. The full petition that includes federal and state court precedents in our favor will be posted on the New Jersey Dept of Education website within the next two weeks.
Now what can you do?
First, pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) that the administrative system is compelled to grant the petition and initiate a rule making proceeding to address these serious violations. In other words, go back and make it right!
Second, we need your financial support! Our team is meeting candidates for legislative office, internally putting together our Get Out the Vote efforts this fall, speaking to many parent and church groups about their rights, and legally intervening in the Attorney General’s case against the Hanover Board of Education, and now the New Jersey Board of Education’s regulation amendments.
