{"id":72481,"date":"2019-08-18T17:05:06","date_gmt":"2019-08-18T15:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=72481"},"modified":"2019-08-14T09:10:15","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T07:10:15","slug":"18-05-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=72481","title":{"rendered":"Jewish schools fear new regulations mandating secular education"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Jewish schools fear new regulations mandating secular education<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Josefin Dolsten<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Yeshivas in New York uniting with Catholic schools to oppose new state regulations they say threaten independent school systems’ autonomy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Orthodox Jews in South Williasmburg, Brooklyn \/ Drew Angerer \/ Getty Images<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Orthodox yeshivas, Catholic schools and elite private schools in New York are coming together to oppose a government initiative that would more clearly define what they are required to teach.<\/span><\/p>\n

The proposal, a set of regulations from the state Department of Education, aims to ensure that private schools provide instruction that is at least as good as the education in public schools. The schools say the regulations are unnecessary and threaten their autonomy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Advocates of the proposal point to complaints by some graduates of Orthodox yeshivas who say they received scant secular education and, as a result, were unable to support themselves financially.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Jewish Telegraphic Agency<\/em>\u00a0spoke to people on both sides of the issue to break it down.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the proposed regulations about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The regulations relate to New York\u2019s Compulsory Education Law. Passed in 1895, the law requires children aged 6 to 16 to attend school. It says that those studying at private schools should receive education that is \u201cat least substantially equivalent to the instruction given to children of like age at the public school of the city or district in which such child resides.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The proposed regulations seek to further clarify what amounts to a \u201csubstantially equivalent\u201d education. They would require schools to teach certain subjects \u2014 like math, English and science \u2014 and specify how many units of each subject students must complete. The regulations also would require that students with limited English knowledge receive instruction to improve their language skills. Private schools would be subject to regular inspections to ensure they are complying with the new rules.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schools that fail the inspections would be given opportunities to make changes. If they don\u2019t, parents would have to send their kids elsewhere or risk violating the Compulsory Education Law, and that could lead to jail time. Noncompliant schools would lose funding for textbooks, transportation and other state-provided services.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why are these changes being considered now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The proposal stems from a complaint in 2015 to New York City\u2019s Education Department by former students of 39 Orthodox schools in the city. They alleged in a letter that the schools were not providing sufficient instruction in secular studies, particularly English. Critics of the yeshiva system say the problem mainly concerns boys\u2019 schools, since the community emphasizes religious studies for men.<\/span><\/p>\n

The cause eventually was taken up last November by the state Education Department, which updated its guidance on what constitutes \u201csubstantially equivalent\u201d education. That move led to complaints from a number of groups and separate lawsuits from three organizations representing Orthodox yeshivas, Catholic schools and independent schools in the state.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of the groups argued that the Education Department had not taken the proper steps in introducing the guidance. In April, the Albany County Supreme Court agreed that the department needed to follow certain procedures \u2014 including allowing a public comment period.<\/span><\/p>\n

In May, the department again put forth the proposed regulations and said it was accepting comments from the public through Sept. 2.<\/span><\/p>\n

The department says it expects that following the comment period, the regulations will be presented in the fall before the Board of Regents, which supervises education in New York state. The board will decide whether to enact the proposal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why are people fighting the regulations?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The three groups that sued in the spring argue that the regulations interfere with their institutions\u2019 autonomy. Many private schools have asked parents to send letters to the Department of Education expressing their opposition to the proposal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel is involved with two organizations that oppose the proposed regulations \u2014 Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools, which represents Orthodox yeshivas, and the Orthodox umbrella group Agudath Israel of America. There are some 160,000 students studying at about 450 yeshiva schools in the state, and most of those schools would need to significantly alter their curriculum under the proposed regulations, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe large majority of Jewish schools across New York state would have to make significant changes in their daily schedules and de-emphasize considerably the Jewish studies part of the day and, in a certain sense, compromise the very mission that these schools were created to carry forward,\u201d he told\u00a0JTA<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zwiebel believes that in cases where schools are not providing proper education in secular subjects, the issue should be dealt with internally or case by case.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to work on those things and get them straight and do it on individual school-by-school basis rather than creating a new aggressive oversight structure that goes, as far as I\u2019m aware, beyond that which exists in any other of the 50 states,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the New York State Association of Independent Schools, which represents 196 private schools, says the proposed regulations would infringe on the authority of its members.<\/span><\/p>\n

The association, which was behind one of the lawsuits, counts among its members a dozen Jewish schools across the denominational spectrum, including SAR Academy, the Ramaz School, the Abraham Joshua Heschel School and the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUsing a local school board that has no direct legal authority over existing nonpublic schools, to make the final determination about the nonpublic schools\u2019 compliance with NYS education laws, undermines the independence and authority of the independent school\u2019s board of trustees,\u201d its executive director, Mark Luria, told\u00a0JTA\u00a0<\/em>in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

The association has its own accreditation system for vetting member schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who supports the regulations?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Among those in favor is Young Advocates for Fair Education, or Yaffed, the organization behind the 2015 complaint to the city Department of Education.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yaffed was founded by graduates of the yeshiva system and seeks to improve secular education there. Its executive director, Naftuli Moster, grew up attending Hasidic yeshivas in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park, and says he graduated barely being able to speak English.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[The yeshivas] want to continue doing what they\u2019ve been doing, which in our view is mass educational neglect and depriving kids of an education, subjecting them to lives of poverty and dependence on government assistance,\u201d he told\u00a0JTA<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A 2017 report by his organization claims that up to age 13, the average student at a boys\u2019 Hasidic yeshiva receives, on average, only six hours per week of instruction in secular studies. After that age, they receive no further secular education, the report claims.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moster says the regulations would help reform a system that he says fails thousands of Orthodox boys by leaving them unprepared to enter the workforce.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMen coming out of there feel unqualified for anything,\u201d he said. \u201cBarely able to speak the language, [they] don\u2019t have any job skills and can\u2019t get into college either.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jewish schools fear new regulations mandating secular education Josefin Dolsten Yeshivas in New York uniting with Catholic schools to oppose new state regulations they say threaten independent school systems’ autonomy. Orthodox Jews in South Williasmburg, Brooklyn \/ Drew Angerer \/ Getty Images Orthodox yeshivas, Catholic schools and elite private schools in New York are coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72481"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72501,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72481\/revisions\/72501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}