The leadership of the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) is committed to the principle that "Teaching is Political." For the second year in a row, the NJEA is spending big money in the Board of Education election in Wayne Township.

There are eight candidates running for the Wayne school board. Three of the eight are parents who are professionals -- Ryan Battershill and Barbara Rigoglioso running under the "Children First" banner, and Wilson Aloquin who is running alone.

The parent candidates believe that teaching should not be political. They urge concentration on teaching the basics -- math, science, history, etc. This is especially true they say in light of the learning losses due to COVID shutdowns.

The other five candidates -- Matthew Giordano, Cindy Simon, Jacob Van Lunen, Suzanne Pudup, and Stacey Scher, all have close ties to the NJEA.

Wayne parents first spoke out at a BOE meeting in June 2021. They were concerned about the teaching of Critical Race Theory and the sexually explicit content of some books in school libraries. When they showed up again in July 2021, Board President Catherine Kazan cut the speaking time for each resident by 40%, from five minutes to three.  

It was soon clear to the frustrated parents that the board president and her closest supporters on the board had little patience for those who questioned what was happening in their children's schools. As a result, the parents decided to elect three candidates of their own. The leadership of the NJEA and that of the Wayne Education Association (WEA) were determined not to let that happen. 

Another silencing technique: More than 100 parents, teachers and residents waited in vain at the October 2021 BOE meeting. Board president Catherine Kazan and vice president Suzanne Pudup decided not to attend the meeting even though they were down the hall at a prior closed-door meeting that had just concluded. As a result of their absence, the BOE did not have a quorum and the meeting was cancelled. Ms. Pudup is now board president and is running for reelection. She is an NJEA-endorsed candidate and has been aided by tens of thousands of NJEA dollars. Still, at a recent candidates' forum, Ms. Pudup stated: "I have always listened to parents."

In 2021, the NJEA and its local organization, the WEA, endorsed Matthew Giordano (himself a local teachers union president in Bloomfield where he works), Cindy Simon (an adjunct professor at William Paterson University and a union member there), and Stacey Scher (a Passaic Teacher and union member there).

Not long after the endorsement, flyers started arriving in Wayne mailboxes from a group called "Garden State Forward." Garden State Forward is an independent expenditure front group for the NJEA. Such groups are permitted under New Jersey law to spend large amounts of money on candidates of their choosing as long as the group doesn't coordinate its efforts with the campaigns involved. The law also permits such groups to adopt a name that does not disclose the origin of the group's money.

According to a report filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission in October 2021, the NJEA front group Garden State Forward spent at least $57,749.52 to aid Giordano, Simon and Scher. Nearly all of their campaigns were paid for by the NJEA front group.

The 2021 Wayne parent candidates, Michael Fattal, Harry Prassakos, and Evie Wentink, spent only a small fraction of that amount on their campaigns. Despite the great disparity in resources, the parents won the election.

In 2022, the NJEA and the WEA have doubled down and appear to be on track to break their prior spending record. All three of last year's NJEA candidates are running again, but only Ms. Scher has been endorsed by the NJEA and the WEA. She is joined by controversial board president, Suzanne Pudup, and by newcomer Jacob Van Lunen. Despite 18 months of minimizing the parents' ability to express themselves, this year's NJEA candidates are running on ticket called "United Not Divided."

In an October 11, 2022 report filed with the Election Law Enforcement Commission, the United Not Divided team disclosed direct contributions from the "NJEA Political Action Committee" totaling $16,400.00 and listed a $5,000.00 contribution from the "Community for Academic Excellence," believed to be an independent expenditure front organization for the Wayne Education Association.

It is not yet known how much has been or will be spent by the NJEA front group Garden State Forward. Unlike last year, the group's October report lists expenditures of $205,342.28 for "direct mail," but only identifies the "Legal Name of Election District or Municipality" as "STATEWIDE."

Several flyers paid for by Garden State Forward have already come to homes in Wayne. Each flyer costs about $8,000 to produce and mail. All of them stress the theme of unity despite the record of the candidates.

One recent United Not Divided flyer quotes Jacob Van Lunen plaintively saying: "News programs and papers are telling us to hate each other. Let's start listening to each other." This is the same Jacob Van Lunen who shouted down another Wayne parent who was quietly being interviewed by a national CBS reporter in a Wayne children's park. In an effort to disrupt the interview, he repeatedly shouted: "You should be ashamed of yourselves!" Mr. Van Lunen's young daughter was in his arms during the outburst. After seeing the flyer, one parent commented: "So much for listening."

In another ironic twist, the flyers started arriving in Wayne during the two weeks following Ms. Pudup's controversial unilateral decision to change the location of the October public BOE meeting from the spacious Town Council Chamber to a small conference room in the administrative offices of the BOE. It was the last public meeting before the election and, as a result, many parents and residents were politely turned away by Wayne police at Ms. Pudup's direction.

For these and many other reasons, Wayne parents have begun to call the United Not Divided team "The United Dividers."