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NYS Education Department to Host Six Meetings To Discuss Jewish Community’s Concerns about Regulations

NYS Education Department to Host Six Meetings To Discuss Jewish Community’s Concerns about Regulations

By Yehudit Garmaise

  Ever since the New York State Education Department first released what many Yidden saw as excessive and intrusive new guidelines for non-public schools two years ago, the Jewish community and others have been fighting back.

   Among the regulations that the Jewish community found onerous was a threat that if students were not provided with at least four to five hours of secular studies per day in a dozen topics, those students would be considered as if they were illegally absent from school.

  On December 11, 2018, the more than 500 Catholic schools in New York city publicly boycotted the state’s new guidelines. The next day, The Jewish Press published Regent test scores that revealed that the students at New York yeshivas outperform students in public schools.

   By April 17, 2019, the New York Supreme Court had sided with the yeshivos, when it declared the state’s guidelines, “null and void” and “illegally implemented.”

  Just three months later, the state again proposed nearly identical regulations for New York’s non-public schools, but this time, the court allowed for a “public comment period,” to which people could voice their feelings and concerns.

   With a push and some organization from Agudath Israel and also the personal meisirus nefesh of many Jews, 140,000 children, parents, and graduates of the yeshiva system wrote e-mails and letters that mostly opposed the new regulations.

  “The feedback [to the new regulations] was quite clear,” said Avrohom Weinstock, the chief of staff and associate director of Education Affairs at Agudath Israel of America, who explained that the 140,000 letters helped the state to understand why so many extra hours of secular education is not always possible or desired in yeshivas.

    “A good education is not just about counting hours of secular studies,” said Weinstock, who is also a lawyer. “Plus, not all parents want their children to be exposed to the same subjects and at the same ages that the state might impose and decide. When educational content is dictated by the government, what does that mean? What is next? Whatever is the flavor of the month.”

   Although COVID has delayed the education department’s response, yesterday it announced that it will be hosting six meetings with stakeholders, which are people who are concerned about the welfare and success of Jewish education and its students, in November and December to respond to the passionate and voluminous letters the Yidden sent back in response to the government’s regulations.

  Some of the stakeholders include administrators, teachers, staff members, students, parents, families, community members, local business leaders, and elected officials.

“Now, we are going to be able to have more targeted conversations,” Weinstock said hopefully. ”I think we have made it clear that what is being asked is out of bounds.

  “Parents have different feelings about different issues, and I think they should be allowed to have different feelings on different issues. They should be able to decide for themselves what content and at what ages their children are exposed to different things.

   “That is why there is a kaleidoscope of Jewish schools out there from which parents can pick and send their children to so they have a lot of choices. The state has to allow us to decide what kinds of education we choose for our children.

   “I respect the fact that not everyone sees the world exactly as I do, and I expect others to do the same for me.”

Photo by: Eli Wohl


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