COLTS NECK – Secretary of Education Linda McMahon made an appearance at Cedar Drive Middle School in Colts Neck as part of the nationwide “History Rocks!” tour, which aims to promote civics and American history education.
The visit is tied to the America 250 Civics Education Coalition, a partnership involving the U.S. Department of Education and dozens of national organizations, including the America First Policy Institute, Turning Point USA, Hillsdale College, Moms for Liberty, and others.
The Colts Neck Board of Education, and in particular, President Angelique Volpe, is credited with reaching out early, which helped bring national recognition to the district. The tour will visit schools in all 50 states by the time it is finished.
During her visit to the school, McMahon and her team participated in a school-wide assembly, visited individual classrooms and toured several student showcases, and met with select district officials, teachers, and students. The assembly itself included a presentation of the colors by Colts Neck High School’s ROTC program, the playing of several patriotic songs like “America the Beautiful” by the Cedar Drive Middle School band, a speech by McMahon, and games for the students, where they asked basic questions about American history to the whole school.
A reporter voiced concern to McMahon that this would be a political visit rather than an educational one.
“Well, I don’t think there’s politics today,” she said. “I think that history and civics and love of country, patriotism, crosses every political boundary, and that is not something that should divide.”
“Every citizen of this country needs to understand that this is the greatest country in the world and there is no politics involved in that,” she said.
When a reporter asked McMahon about an accusation by Democrats that Department of Education responsibilities are being transferred to other departments, she replied: “My job, the president hired me to be the last Secretary of Education.”
Protestors gathered outside of Cedar Drive Middle School to protest the assembly itself and to speak against the core values of the people and the organizations that are running it. They disagreed with the political beliefs that they thought were being forced on the kids and were skeptical of the intentions of the groups that are behind McMahon’s tour. Many of them stated that they do not agree that something political of this nature has any place in a school system.
Another one of the major complaints of the protestors is that they were denied access to what they claim was being called a public meeting.
“If you have a public board meeting at 7:45 in the morning that is advertised as being open to the public, and then the public is denied entry, that is just not acceptable. I don’t even know if that is legal,” said Kyler Dineen, one of the protestors who leads an organization called NJ voters for church and state separation. It was that same organization that started a petition to have the Colts Neck Board of Education cancel McMahon’s visit, because they said they wanted to keep propaganda out of schools. He unsuccessfully ran for New Jersey Assembly as a Democrat in the 12th District this year.
On top of that, major news sources and publications, like The New York Times and MS Now, were denied access to the event.
All protestors who were interviewed said that they believe that New Jersey schools are non-partisan neutral grounds or are at least they are meant to be.
“They have brought politics into the district. New Jersey schools are nonpartisan. When you enter a school board, as a former school board member, you check your politics at the door, and you are here to educate the kids,” said one protestor in reference to the current Colts Neck Board of Education.
“This is not a protest of Linda McMahon’s visit in it of itself, I don’t think, I mean, I personally wouldn’t have a problem with the sitting US Secretary of Education visiting a school. To me, it’s very specifically the organizations that are involved in the coalition that are the reason why she is here is to promote the work of that coalition. She is here to promote civics-based education of a group that was formed with our US tax dollars. With groups that have very clear political, religious motivations behind them. Schools overall should be neutral grounds.”
The superintendent of the Colts Neck Board of Education, Dr. MaryJane Garibay, said that the event itself was a part of a non-partisan initiative.
Since they were prevented from accessing the event, the protestors organized their efforts at the front entrance to the school’s parking lot.
Much of the discontent that the protestors had during the event seemed to stem from how the current presidential administration has been handling education, distrust of the groups that are behind McMahon’s appearance in Colts Neck and her tour overall, and how the current board of education seems willing to inject what the protestors deem to be propaganda into the schools.
The next meeting of the Colts Neck Board of Education will be on December 17 at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at 70 Conover Road.
