By Councilman Chaim Deutsch
The quality of secular studies offered by New York’s yeshivas and day schools has come under relentless and unfair attack during the last few years – and now new guidelines for private schools issued by the State Education Department are creating unprecedented confusion and concern on the part of educators, parents, and community leaders.
In late November, State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia took the unprecedented step of issuing new, onerous guidelines that require a significant number of secular courses to be taught, give the school district control over teacher’s accreditation, and mandate inspections from public school officials. If not abided by, the guidelines threaten the loss of student-based funding, school transportation, and even eventual closure.
While we can all agree that every child deserves a sound basic education, these new guidelines step far beyond that. They are intrusive, and subvert a private school’s right to control their own curriculum and the culture in their schools.
In the Jewish community, parents take on the often hefty burden of paying yeshiva tuition because we want to ensure that we have some semblance of control over the environment in which our children are spending most of their days.
We do our due diligence in ensuring that our children are receiving a good education that will prepare them for a successful future. Most importantly, it is our absolute right as parents to choose where we send our children for school.
These new guidelines are not just affecting yeshivas and Jewish day schools. Muslim and Catholic leaders have also joined in condemning them, with the New York State Catholic Conference going so far as to direct all of the state’s Catholic schools to not participate in “any review carried out by local public school officials.”
The New York Court of Appeals determined in 1948 that “private schools have a constitutional right to exist, and parents have a constitutional right to send their children to such schools.” Depriving such schools of the right to shape their curricula in line with their religious and cultural values would essentially remove the “private” in “private schools”.
It is the tradition of the Jewish people, since the days when Yaakov Avinu sent his son Yehuda ahead to Egypt to establish a yeshiva, that we educate our children according to our teachings as a method of securing our nation’s endurance.
Maintaining the independence of our schools is absolutely critical, and allowing the State to overstep their bounds and infringe upon our religious institutions sets a dangerous precedent.
Today, they want to control what we teach in our yeshivas. If we don’t fight back, what will tomorrow bring?
–Councilman Chaim Deutsch serves as Chair of the Veterans Committee and the NYC Council Jewish Caucus. He represents the 48th Council District in Southern Brooklyn, including the neighborhoods of Midwood, Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, and parts of Coney Island
You’re wrong on so many levels and it’s sad how people from our own community are so unaware of how horrible this Gezeira is. Just a few points: 1) This is not about taking money. I don’t know why people keep on saying this false point. It’s about what the Yeshivos must do regardless of whether they take money or not. And it’s also on the parents who can be found truant and have child services remove their kids if they don’t comply and give their children this government mandated education. 2) It’s untrue and inconsistent with many institutions in… Read more »
“We do our due diligence in ensuring that our children are receiving a good education that will prepare them for a successful future.”
LOL!
Hate to break it to you, but it’s not so clear cut and simple. Yeshivas are not being entirely funded by the government and any funding that goes to the yeshivas is student-based funding, such as IEP driven special-ed services. And regardless, the government doesn’t actually fund anything. The government is one of the most poorly run enterprises to ever exist. You would never even consider investing a company that runs as poorly. Yet we are all required to invest via our taxes. Simply put, your entire argument is built on a false premise. The government doesn’t fund yeshivas, and… Read more »
I don’t get why people want illiterate children. It’s clear why there’s a poverty problem in frum neighborhoods where schools don’t have secular studies.
shame on our community leaders Who encouraged us to vote for Democrats. You made your bed now you must lay in it
Thank you. Hope this is being fought at government levels.
If you’re going to take funding from the Govnerment you have to follow their guidelines. If you’re not going to follow their guidelines, don’t take their funding. You can’t take their funding and then throw a fit when they expect you to follow certain standards. If I’m investing in a business and giving you funds to develop the business per your business plan as shown to me, I expect that you’re going to follow the business plan. If you’re going to deviate from the business plan then you can expect that I will withdraw my investment. A solution would be… Read more »