N.J. Commissioner of Education is out

Angelica Allen-McMillan will leave her cabinet post in January after three turbulent years as acting Commissioner of Education, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.

Her departure follows controversies over sex education curriculum and gender identification policies and perhaps more importantly, a sometimes rocky relationship with the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teacher and public employee union.

“She was never a good fit,” one administration official told the New Jersey Globe.

Gov. Phil Murphy has not yet settled on a successor.

Allen-McMillan was nominated in October 2020 after Lamont Repollet left to become president of Kean University.

But Allen-McMillan was never able to win Senate confirmation.

Under the unwritten rule of senatorial courtesy, Allen-McMillan received signoffs from Essex County’s four Democratic senators and was set for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in June 2021, after which she presumably would have been confirmed with little issue.

But shortly before she was due to appear, the New Jersey Globe reported that she had recently moved from Montclair to Cedar Grove, which is part of the 40th legislative district; that gave Republican State Sen. Kristin Corrado (R-Totowa) courtesy over Allen-McMillan.  Corrado had not been informed of the move until the Globe told her, and said the lack of honesty by the acting commission led her to hold up her nomination.

With a new legislature taking office on January 9, Murphy would have had to nominate Allen-McMillan for a third time.  He had resubmitted her nomination to the Senate in January 2022.

Still, the “acting” in front of Allen-McMillan’s title did not impact her authority leading the Department of Education for over three years.

A former science teacher and elementary school principal in South Orange, Allen-McMillan served as interim Morris County Executive Superintendent of Schools and Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Newark and Irvington.