New Jersey State House.
New Jersey's Senate Bill 932 and the identical Assembly Bill 852 would, if enacted, require the state board of education to adopt rules to prevent public school teachers in the state from engaging in what it describes as "political, ideological or religious advocacy in the classroom" and establish penalties for violations "up to and including termination of employment."
The rules demanded by the bills would require teachers to "provide students with materials supporting both sides of a controversial issue being addressed and to present both sides in a fair-minded and nonpartisan manner," where "controversial issue" was defined as "an issue that is part of an electoral party platform at the local, state, or federal level." As Ars Technica (January 29, 2019) observed in discussing a spate of similar measures in 2019, "a large number of state party platforms specifically mention evolution and climate change."
Previous versions of these bills, including Senate Bill 4086 and Assembly Bill 1514 in 2024-2025, Senate Bill 598 and Assembly Bill 783 in 2022-2023 and Senate Bill 4166 and Assembly Bill 6136 in 2020-2021, have died in the education committee of their chambers without receiving a hearing.
