(JTA) — Parents at three more New York City yeshivas are bring told to find another school for next year as the State Education Department clamps down on schools flouting requirements for secular education instruction.
The schools will lose their legal status and will not receive any public funding for meals, transportation, textbooks or other programs after June 30, which is the deadline for all schools in the state to comply with the secular education mandate, according to a spokesperson for the New York State Education Department.
The government crackdown comes after years of legislative battles, court disputes, and public debate over the quality and character of education received by an estimated 65,000 yeshiva students across New York state.
The state ultimately decided that all children learn to speak, read and write in English and gain at least basic knowledge of math, science, and social studies. While many yeshivas teach these topics alongside religious instruction, some do not, focusing entirely on the study of Jewish texts.
Some of the schools deemed to violate the state’s requirements have moved to improve their instruction of secular subjects. Others, the education department spokesperson said, have received repeated warnings but failed to engage with the department about making changes to their curriculum.
The schools losing their status
Three schools, two of which are part of the same yeshiva, received notices in early February that they were losing their legal status as schools. Three additional schools, all in Brooklyn, were notified last week.
They are:
Mosdos Chasidei Square, at 105 Heyward Street
Mosdos Chasidei Square Boro Park, at 1373 43rd Street
Yeshiva Torah V’Yirah Bais Rochel, also known as United Talmudical Academy of Boro Park, at 1275 36th Street
None of the schools responded to requests for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Several yeshivas in the Hudson Valley are in open defiance of the education department and are expecting to face similar sanctions in the near future, according to the Times Union.
“We’re not going to let the inspectors in, we’re not going to teach what you want to teach. If we’re cut off, we’re cut off,” Rabbi Abraham Klein, a spokesman for the Hudson Valley schools, was quoted as saying.
Klein said the schools and the families they serve see secular education mandates as an attack on their religious way of life and are preparing to resist authorities. For example, the schools are working with lawyers to offer aid to parents who would face fines or arrests for not withdrawing their children.
“We’re ready for that fight. With God’s help we’re going to win it,” Klein told the Times Union.
Yeshiva education advocates point out that learning the Talmud and other Jewish texts requires intensive analysis and the development of critical thinking skills. They also argue that graduates of their schools outperform public school graduates in many ways.
But advocates on the other hand side of the issue say that a lack of secular instruction creates dependency in haredi Orthodox adults.
The secular education mandate and the current enforcement campaign represent a victory for Young Advocates for Fair Education, an advocacy group that sued the Education Department in 2015, claiming that many yeshiva students were entering adulthood without basic skills and knowledge.
“With these letters, NYSED is working to ensure that every child in New York receives the education they are guaranteed under state law,” YAFFED Executive Director Adina Mermelstein Konikoff said in a statement about the three latest schools to be penalized. “For years, students in these yeshivas have been deprived of even the most basic education, leaving them unprepared for life after school. We appreciate NYSED’s work to protect students’ right to a basic education.”
