09-13-2022, 10:17 PM
here's a piece from the NY Daily News
For a decade, woefully underprepared graduates of ultra-Orthodox yeshivas have pleaded for New York City and State officials to require that these schools also provide their students the basics of a secular education. And for a decade, those pleas have been answered with cowardly buckling to a powerful political constituency telling officials to butt out.
With the final passage by the Board of Regents of new state regulations today, officials will get another chance. They must demand reform. Failing that, there must be severe consequences.
State law has long required the instruction a child receives to be “substantially equivalent to the instruction given to minors of like age and attainments at the public schools of the city or district where the minor resides.” This doesn’t mean Christian, Jewish, Muslim or secular classes must parrot those in the public schools, but that, in their own way, they must impart the basics in English, math, science and social studies. Anything less is educational neglect.
Substantially equivalent means everyone. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Getty Images)
But neglect has been the norm for tens of thousands of Hasidic youngsters in Brooklyn and Rockland and Orange counties. With notable exceptions, students graduate without the skills and knowledge necessary to make them employable. In 2019, when a timid, long-delayed New York City investigation finally came out, it found that just two of 28 inspected yeshivas met the bar.
New state rules give non-public schools multiple ways to prove they are fulfilling their legal obligations. Among others, they can be approved by an accepted educational accreditor; participate in the International Baccalaureate program; or regularly administer state-approved tests to their students. Otherwise, they invite a review by local officials — potentially triggering a remedial action plan and ultimately being deemed in defiance of state law.
It will soon fall to local officials, including Eric Adams — who as a candidate pooh-poohed criticism of the schools — to have the fortitude to inspect classrooms with the same seriousness health inspectors bring to doling out restaurant grades. Schools that fail children must shape up or be shut down.
For a decade, woefully underprepared graduates of ultra-Orthodox yeshivas have pleaded for New York City and State officials to require that these schools also provide their students the basics of a secular education. And for a decade, those pleas have been answered with cowardly buckling to a powerful political constituency telling officials to butt out.
With the final passage by the Board of Regents of new state regulations today, officials will get another chance. They must demand reform. Failing that, there must be severe consequences.
State law has long required the instruction a child receives to be “substantially equivalent to the instruction given to minors of like age and attainments at the public schools of the city or district where the minor resides.” This doesn’t mean Christian, Jewish, Muslim or secular classes must parrot those in the public schools, but that, in their own way, they must impart the basics in English, math, science and social studies. Anything less is educational neglect.
Substantially equivalent means everyone. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Getty Images)
But neglect has been the norm for tens of thousands of Hasidic youngsters in Brooklyn and Rockland and Orange counties. With notable exceptions, students graduate without the skills and knowledge necessary to make them employable. In 2019, when a timid, long-delayed New York City investigation finally came out, it found that just two of 28 inspected yeshivas met the bar.
New state rules give non-public schools multiple ways to prove they are fulfilling their legal obligations. Among others, they can be approved by an accepted educational accreditor; participate in the International Baccalaureate program; or regularly administer state-approved tests to their students. Otherwise, they invite a review by local officials — potentially triggering a remedial action plan and ultimately being deemed in defiance of state law.
It will soon fall to local officials, including Eric Adams — who as a candidate pooh-poohed criticism of the schools — to have the fortitude to inspect classrooms with the same seriousness health inspectors bring to doling out restaurant grades. Schools that fail children must shape up or be shut down.