NYS Reissues Education Guidelines,
Yeshivah Advocates Object
By Reuvain Borchardt Hamodia
The New York state Education Department on Wednesday published proposed guidelines for private-school education, largely identical to those struck down last year by a judge on procedural grounds, drawing swift condemnation from yeshivah advocates.
The required hours of secular-studies instruction would obligate yeshivos, with a four-day week, to teach upwards of a four hours of secular education per day in junior high school, and more than three hours per day in high school.
The rules seek to provide detailed instructions for how private schools fulfill the longstanding legal requirement that they provide an education “substantially equivalent” to that provided in public schools.
Among the required subjects is arts, which many yeshivos and Orthodox Jewish parents object to.
The Push to Progressivism and Liberal Ideologies
Under the rules, yeshivos are placed under the purview of the local school authority (LSA), which will visit each yeshivah to determine whether it is fulfilling the substantial-equivalency requirement. In most areas of the state, the LSA is the trustees of the board of education of the district; in New York City, it is the school’s chancellor.
LSA’s are required to make an initial visit to each school within its district by no later than the end of the 2022-2023 school year, and make regular visits thereafter.
The Education Department issued largely similar guidelines in November 2018, but after a lawsuit was filed by Jewish, Catholic, and non-religious private-school groups, a judge ruled in April that the guidelines were an illegal circumvention of the rulemaking process, which requires publishing the proposed rule, giving time for public comment, and having a public hearing and vote by the state Board of Regents.
Wednesday’s publication of the new guidelines commences a public-comment period, which ends September 2. A vote by the Board of Regents on a final set of regulations will likely be held sometime in the fall.
Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia said in a statement Wednesday that “nonpublic schools are an important part of the educational landscape in New York State,” and that “with the regulations, we will ensure that all students — no matter which school they attend — have the benefit of receiving the education state law says they must have.”
But yeshivah advocates and parents sharply condemned the guidelines as an intrusion into parental choice and religious liberties.
Parents for Education and Religious Liberty in Schools (PEARLS), a yeshivah-advocacy organization, said that the proposed regulations “disregard the long history of success demonstrated by private schools across New York State,” “undermine the choices made by parents who choose private schools for their children,” and “substitute the education bureaucracy in Albany for the private school leadership sought by parents and students.”
PEARLS said it urges the Education Department “to work with the private school community in a manner that respects the success, autonomy, history and purpose of private schools.”
Emily DeSantis, the Education Department’s Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs, told Hamodia, “We will consider all feedback we receive on the draft regulations before issuing final regulations.”
Yeshivah parents who spoke with Hamodia said they strongly oppose state regulation of education.
“As a parent, my responsibility is to prepare my children for a successful and happy future,” said Tziri Hershkovitz, a Williamsburg mother. “To that end, education is an absolute priority. But in a free country, what that education should entail, should be the choice of the parents. The hours not spent on secular studies are when we inculcate Torah values that shape their identity and prepare them for meaningful living.”
A Boro Park mother, who asked to be identified only as Leah, said, “I spend $15,000 a year sending my child to a yeshivah high school, which I selected because I think it will best provide him the education I want him to receive. Though his yeshivah’s secular-studies curriculum — provided in addition to the grueling schedule of Torah studies — is fewer hours each day than public schools, he performed far better on his Regents exams than most public-school students. He is a scholar both in Torah and in secular studies.
“The state should not be interfering in how I choose to have my son educated; this is about parental choice and religious liberties.”
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rborchardt@hamodia.com
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WRONG ARGUMENT: The argument should not be “a parent’s choice” because then NYS believes that (the argument is) it’s “only a matter of opinion” and that NYS says its opinion “outways" (= exceeds in value or importance) the parents’ choice. That makes it a secular inyan. Instead, the argument (is religious) is that the Jewish Religious Community is following the laws of the Torah, given to them and the world by the G–d of the world. Its the Torah that mandates Jewish education, not NY State! Standing up for the Torah is what this is all about. That’s why Yeshivos must stand firm.
To understand the importance of Torah Learning (for children, women and boys and men) is crucial to the life of Jews. Therefore it is suggested to listen to the three shiur series of the “Importance of Torah” by Rabbi Mendel Kessin, in which he elucidates the hierarchy of the importance of Torah based on the sefiros.
https://torahthinking.com/the-greatness-of-torah-part-3/
https://torahthinking.com/the-greatness-of-torah-part-1/ –
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=p6N5vurb6YA]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=p6N5vurb6YA]
2 comments:
The #1 reason is, of course, that G-D Almighty, Creator of the Universe, rules the world and His people are commanded firstly to educate their children in Torah wherever they are and whatever they're doing, from waking up in the morning until going to sleep at night. Aside from that vital reason, the parents of Yeshivah students PAY tuition to the schools which then becomes a private matter and not a government matter. The main thing is not to be subsidized in any way by the government. This is all part of a global agenda to bring total immorality to the world! As far as education goes, it's the Yeshivot and private schools which give the best education and not the public schools, where the students many times come out dumber than when they started school. The parents and decent people of New York must fight this evil decree with all their might, legally, because, in no way, will a true Yeshivah allow some of the things they are trying to force upon and indoctrinate the children with. The yeshivot cannot diminish the Torah learning for the secular subjects.
Anyone with a bit of common sense understands this is the part of the process of Hashem getting the Jews aware that they must think of making Aliya and better to fight the good fight at home in EY where the same zevel is going on in many ways there. This is a global makah! We pray H' will give sechel to our people and this 'decree' will be annulled for the time being, until more and more Jews wake up to reality. May every Yehudi be zoche to have the means and wherewithal to go habayitah!
The USA was truly the most freedom loving and free country on earth, but it seems it is coming to an end. The medina of chesed has allowed itself to be swallowed up by evil forces, as well as most of the free world. r'l, but we are in the Geulah process and H' is making it very clear the Geulah is close and every Jew and righteous of the nations must awaken to that fact.
bina
Moshe, you are so correct. But the “community leaders” are so weakened from living in the “land of the free” that they do not meet this threat as an insult to Hashem and our holy Torah, that decrees how to raise our children. This is the point I was making, when commenting about what “one mother” said. Foolishness.
Not so the xtians, and not so the islamists. They stand up with force and deny any collusion with NYEd on their offspring.
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