If the Senate Judiciary Committee appears to be slow-walking Gov. Phil Murphy’s nominees for the State Board of Education—this is the first time in 20 years the Committee has bothered to interview state board candidates— it’s for good reason. Here’s Democrat Paul Sarlo, a member of the committee: 

“Our educational process has sort of been hijacked in this country, by folks on the extreme left and the extreme right. Sometimes we need to get back to the basics.”

Many folks would agree with him. 

What would getting “back to the basics” look like in New Jersey?

It would look very different than the current state of affairs in the Department of Education.

The priorities of Murphy’s current Commissioner, Angelica Allen-McMillan—she’s leaving at the end of the month; no replacement has been announced—have deflected attention from the stagnation of student achievement (58% of NJ third-graders can’t read at grade-level) to peripheral culture war-nonsense.  What Sarlo calls the “extreme left” hijacking of education policy has forced many conscientious board members to try to fight the Commissioner’s crusade to lower standards, like the way she successfully changed the definition of a NJ high school diploma from “college and career-ready” to “high school graduation-ready” so more kids get diplomas. (The extreme right is crazed by transgender policies and book bans.) As former NJ Education Commissioner Chris Cerf wrote earlier this week,  

“Supporters of lowering expectations solemnly intone ‘equality’ as their goal, often with thinly veiled suggestions that their views are animated by the pursuit of racial justice. Exactly the opposite is true. Eliminating a level playing field on which all students are held to the same high standard is the very definition of inequity. The only thing that reducing graduation criteria equalizes is lack of educational opportunity. “

Some of Allen-McMillan’s predilections may be tied to Murphy’s fealty to teacher union executives and their deep pockets, as well as their embrace of what Matthew Yglesias calls “the dead-end of Kendi-ism.” Specifically, Ibram X. Kendi  argues that “standardized tests have become the most effective racist weapon ever devised to objectively degrade Black minds and legally exclude their bodies” and believes the only way to advance social justice is to aim for what Allen-McMillan calls “equitable and excellent outcomes for all students.” We’ve achieved equity when all students, regardless of merit or effort, get the same grades. Or, as Noah Smith says, “the idea is to make all kids equal by making them all equally unable to learn.” (The current State Board overturned that particular attempt; Vice President Andrew Mulvihill commented that “dumbing down standards and goals” in pursuit of equal outcomes leads to “programs like Asbury Park’s 64 Floor, where children graduate from high school without basic skills.”)

Thus, it is heartening to hear one of the two new members of the State Board of Education, Jeanette Pena, approved by the Senate committee yesterday, tell Senator Mike Testa,  “I am passionate about getting our reading levels up to where they need to be.” (The committee recommended her for the seat, unlike Murphy’s first nominee, Mary Bennett, who was sent up without the committee’s recommendation.) The word on the street is, as the legislative lame-duck session draws to a close on Monday, that Murphy’s other four nominees may be scheduled for a hearing. Let’s hope these nominees share Pena’s priorities for academic recovery and a repugnance for perversions of equity. That’s the only way we put New Jersey’s children first.