Standing Up for Our Schools: Rejecting Right-Wing Attacks on Public Education
- Dan Weiss
- 22 hours ago
- 4 min read
As a councilman and community leader, I have had the privilege of working closely with families, educators, and students across West Windsor. I have seen firsthand the strength of our public schools, their relentless pursuit of excellence, their deep commitment to every child, and their essential role in shaping an inclusive, thriving, and forward-looking community.
That is why I am speaking out today against a dangerous and deeply political campaign targeting the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District (WW-P). A group calling itself Wake Up Call NJ (WUCNJ) has launched a multimillion-dollar advertising blitz that includes billboards, mailers, radio spots, internet ads, and social media saturation, all aimed at undermining trust in public education. They claim to be a "nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy group." They are nothing of the sort.
This is not about test scores. It is not about transparency. It is about politics, power, and profit.
A Manufactured Crisis Fueled by Billionaires and Ideology
Wake Up Call NJ was co-founded by billionaire Laura Overdeck, a Republican mega-donor and political appointee, and Peter Shulman, a former NJ Department of Education official whose failed reforms gutted the state’s teacher pipeline and left long-lasting scars on public schools.
Their campaign follows a national playbook. It is nearly identical to "Go Beyond Grades," an astroturf group running saturation media campaigns in other states and funded by the same billionaire foundation. These are not grassroots movements. They are well-funded, coordinated efforts to sow distrust, vilify educators, and create the political conditions to privatize public education and funnel taxpayer dollars into for-profit ventures.
It is also no coincidence that WUCNJ’s seven-week media blitz ends just days before Election Day. Despite their claims of neutrality, this is a political campaign with a clear agenda and a clear beneficiary.
Distorting Data and Undermining Trust
WUCNJ’s messaging is deliberately alarmist, built on misleading soundbites and cherry-picked data. Their ads feature statements such as "Emma will never be a doctor" or "Carter will never be an engineer," pronouncements based solely on elementary school test scores. As WW-P superintendent Dr. David Aderhold rightly points out, "The ability and future of a child should never be measured based upon a one-time assessment created by for-profit testing companies who attempt to sell both the test and the tutoring solution".
The facts tell a very different story. WW-P continues to be one of the top-ranked school districts in New Jersey. Consider just a few data points:
SAT performance: Our students’ average scores, 647 in Reading/Writing and 661 in Math, far exceed state and national averages.
AP success: 90 percent of AP exams score 3 or higher, with 38 percent earning the top score of 5.
College readiness: 97 percent of students are graduation-ready in English Language Arts and 93 percent in Math, compared to state averages of 82 percent and 55 percent.
College continuation: 96.8 percent of graduates continue their education, with 93 percent enrolling in four-year colleges.
Biliteracy: More than 660 graduates earned the Seal of Biliteracy across 12 languages between 2018 and 2024
These are not the hallmarks of a failing district. They are the results of years of dedication by our educators, families, and students. They reflect a community that values education as a public good, not a commodity.
A Broader Agenda: Privatization, Division, and Cultural Backlash
Make no mistake: this campaign is not about WW-P. It is part of a nationwide effort to delegitimize public education, dismantle its funding base, and replace it with privatized alternatives that enrich a small few. It is also part of a broader ideological war that seeks to strip diversity, equity, and inclusion from our classrooms and replace them with a narrow, nationalistic vision of education that excludes and erases.
This is why these campaigns so often target diverse, high-performing districts like ours, where students from immigrant families thrive, where inclusive curricula reflect our nation’s full history, and where LGBTQ+ students are affirmed and supported. These are the values that right-wing groups cannot tolerate. And so they attack them.
The Real Work of Education: Continuous Improvement, Equity, and Opportunity
Our district is not perfect, and it does not pretend to be. They are constantly identifying gaps, refining curriculum, and expanding support. From implementing new foundational literacy programs and targeted interventions to offering dual-enrollment college courses and summer enrichment opportunities, WW-P is deeply committed to accelerating student growth and closing disparities
That is what real accountability looks like. Not billboard slogans. Not billionaire talking points. Real, hard work, done by dedicated educators and supported by a community that believes in the transformative power of public education.
A Call to Action: Defend Public Education and Defend Our Community
This is a defining moment. If we allow billionaire-funded campaigns to undermine our trust in public schools, we risk more than just budgets and test scores. We risk the very idea of education as a public good, accessible to all, accountable to all, and reflective of the diversity and values of our community.
We must stand together and reject this cynical attempt to turn our classrooms into battlegrounds for political gain and profit.
“It’s infuriating to see these fearmongering tactics, backed by a lot of money, discrediting already underfunded public schools for the purpose of political and financial gain. While I am confident in our community’s ability to withstand this storm, I worry about other districts who will be targeted next.” - WW-P Board of Education President Graelynn McKeown.
We must reaffirm our commitment to public education, to our children, and to the belief that their futures cannot and will not be determined by a handful of billionaires and their political allies.
I encourage every resident to read Dr. Aderhold’s full statement, review the data for yourself, and speak up for our schools. Public education is the foundation of our democracy. It deserves nothing less than our full-throated defense.
Daniel J. Weiss
Councilman, West Windsor Township
Council Liaison, WW-P Board of Education