Frank Borzellieri is an American author, professor of journalism, political columnist and former elected member of a New York City school board. He is best known for his conservative views on immigration, affirmative action, gun control, education, libertarianism, and his opposition to what he terms the lack of morality and the lack of focus on the basics of learning in the New York City public school system.
Borzellieri attended Catholic schools his entire life, and is currently both a professor and a graduate student at Catholic universities. Shortly after graduating from college, he began a career in journalism and was published in major newspapers and magazines such as USA Today and Newsday. He became involved in New York City politics, and began writing opinion pieces, including his newspaper columns and editorials for the Leader-Observer chain of newspapers in New York City. He continues as contributing editor of the Leader-Observer. His writings are greatly influenced by his conservative politics, his libertarian views, and the morality stemming from his Catholic faith.
Borzellieri teaches journalism at St. Barnabas High School in Bronx, New York. He also teaches at a Yeshiva school. In the past, he has taught media writing, public relations and media graphics at St. John’s University in New York City.He is also an author and political columnist. While his writings are usually on social commentary, he has also written on history, science, sports, and entertainment.
Frank Borzellieri is the author of five books and is currently under contract for two others. Two books focus on his commentaries on the social issues of the day, The Unspoken Truth: Race, Culture and Other Taboos (ISBN 978-0965638319) and Don’t Take it Personally: Race, Immigration and Other Heresies (ISBN 978-0965638333). He is also the co-author of It Happened in New York (ISBN 978-1560448990) which has been released in two separate editions. Borzellieri’s fifth book, Lynched: A Conservative’s Life on a New York City School Board (ISBN 978-0981540719), documents his struggles as a conservative facing a liberal majority on School Board 24 in Queens, New York, where he was elected to three terms and served eleven years.In 2008 he wrote The Physics of Dark Shadows: Time Travel, ESP and the Laboratory (ISBN 978-0981540702), a book about the science behind the supernatural events of the 1960s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, which aired on ABC from 1966-1971. He is also under contract for a sports book on hockey’s New York Islanders and another book on the New York subway gunman Bernhard Goetz.
Borzellieri was a popular columnist for the Leader-Observer newspaper chain in New York City. His conservative views on race and immigration frequently caused controversy, but Leader-Observer publisher Walter Sanchez often defended Borzellieri as having a point of view that the readership wanted.Borzellieri has also authored numerous newspaper and magazine articles in journals such as Newsday, USA Today, New York Daily News, and the New York Guardian.
Frank Borzellieri was elected to the District 24 New York City School Board in 1993 and was re-elected in both 1996 and 1999. He served a total of eleven years. In his tenure on the board he became well-known as the only conservative of the nine elected members and battled frequently with the liberals over hot-button issues such as anti-American multiculturalism and bilingual education, both of which he opposed. He became a leading national spokesman for English as the official language.He also opposed what was termed the “Rainbow Curriculum”, which taught the homosexual lifestyle to first and second graders through books such as “Heather Has Two Mommies” and “Daddy’s Roommate.” It was one of very few issues on which Borzellieri had a majority support of the school board. The others on which he received majority support were his proposal to strengthen New York City’s Megan’s Law against child predators,the banning of Ebonics (black English) in the school system, and the prohibition of discussing with young students the topics of abortion, homosexuality, masturbation and contraception.He defended the Boy Scouts of America’s right to ban homosexual scoutmasters and he put forth a resolution, which passed by a vote of eight to one, supporting the Scouts at a time when other New York City school boards were voting to denounce them.But for the most part, he was outnumbered on most issues in the conservative-liberal battles.He voted against accepting all federal monies as violations of the United States Constitution and opposed sex education, believing it was the province of parents, not the schools. He also tried to level charges for “conduct unbecoming a teacher” against a homosexual teacher in the district who “outed” himself in front of his fourth-grade class.In his conservative district, he was voted the most popular school board member in both 1996 and 1999.He left the board in 2004.
Because of his record on the school board, and his views as a political columnist, Borzellieri became a frequent guest on the talk show circuit across the United States.He has appeared on many radio shows and television programs including Leeza, the Ricki Lake Show, 20/20, Geraldo Rivera Show, Fox Sunday Morning, the Jackie Mason Show, Good Morning America, Good Day New York, the Richard Bey Show, Michael Moore’s TV Nation and the Vladimir Posner Show. On radio he has been a frequent guest on the Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, Bob Grant, and Curtis Sliwa shows. A sports fanatic, he has appeared many times on the Ann Liguori radio sports program on WFAN in New York.Although a staunch libertarian conservative, he counts among his friends liberals Norman Siegel of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Alan Colmes of Hannity and Colmes, and Marquez Claxton of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. He has been profiled in the Washington Times, Village Voice, New York Times, and others, and received praise from William F. Buckley’s magazine National Reviewand the Washington, D.C.-based Human Events.
Several years ago, Borzellieri co-authored the book It Happened in New York, with Fran Capo, who is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Fastest Talking Female. He also publicly expressed his affections for New York City Councilwoman Melinda Katz in his newspaper column, although Newsday and many other observers regarded the column as a tongue-in-cheek endorsement. He also mentions past girlfriends in his 2009 book, Lynched.
In addition to his political writings, Borzellieri has written sports articles, including a profile of sportscaster Ann Liguori of WFAN radio in New York. He has written about his favorite sports teams, especially the New York Mets, New York Islanders, Minnesota Vikings and the World Cup Champion Italian national soccer team, the “Azzurri.” He has also written numerous articles on the television soap opera Dark Shadows, of which he is a big fan.
