In an editorial, the Hoboken Democratic Committee’s executive committee says they won’t get involved in the board of education race and their Republican counterparts should do the same.
Historically, Hoboken Board of Education elections have remained nonpartisan with great results for our community.
The work done over a decade ago by the original Kids First campaign (no affiliation to the current slate of the same name) to modernize our school district managed to unite residents from across the political spectrum.
Democrats, Republicans, and unaffiliated voters came together with the common goal of improving and investing in the daily operations and governance of our school district. This coalition building has been successful!
Our schools are flourishing! And it was done without interference from the local branches of the Democratic and Republican parties.
Until now.
The upcoming 2022 Hoboken Board of Education races, like so many others in the United States today, are being co-opted by partisan politics. Across the country, school board races are turning into culture conflicts.
Heated discussions about critical race theory, gender identity, and coronavirus protocols, have shifted the focus from the classroom to the cable tv wars.
As the leadership of the Democratic Party here in Hoboken, we are concerned about what these partisan tactics mean for our children.
In the past weeks, we’ve seen multiple examples of this type of involvement in our local Board of Education race.
The Chair of the Hoboken Republican Party, acting in his official capacity, is the Campaign Chair of one slate of Hoboken Board of Education candidates which also has filed its official paperwork from the same address as the Republican Party’s official address.
And we’ve heard rumors that the Republican Party plans to invest significant dollars into the race.
We, the Hoboken Democratic Party, will not be getting involved. It is not our job to determine curriculum, oversee facility management, or create and maintain budgets. It is not our job to bring culture conflict to the school district.
And it is certainly not our job to pull focus from what’s really important – discussing the investment in our school district so that every child can succeed and thrive.
Today, we call on our Republican counterparts to do the same.
Hoboken has worked for years to make our school district a welcoming community where children of all backgrounds and abilities can flourish together.
Turning our Board of Education into a partisan battlefield will only prevent us from continuing that progress.
The election is Tuesday, November 8th. You can look up your polling place, register to vote, see early voting information, request a mail-in-ballot or find other voting information here. Make your voting plan today!
Sincerely,
The Hoboken Democratic Party Executive Committee
Rachel Hodes, Chair
Phil Cohen, Vice-Chair
Eileen Carvalho, Vice-Chair
Joe Quintero, Vice-Chair
Nora Martínez DeBenedetto, Secretary
Vera Sirota, Secretary
Reny Rosado, Sergeant-at-Arms
Marla Decker, Treasurer