User:שלאק/Yeshiva education in New York

Activities
YAFFED has advertised its mission by use of billboard advertisements and social media campaigns. One billboard quoted a Mishnaic source alongside the message: "It's your mitzvah. It's the law."

YAFFED is currently exploring legal avenues through which to pressure schools to improve secular education.

In the summer of 2015, YAFFED organized a letter writing campaign directed at district superintendents and the NYS Education Department to inform them of serious concerns regarding the education in numerous Hasidic Yeshivas. The DOE subsequently announced an investigation into the matter.

YAFFED has stated that if it does not receive an adequate response from the local government, it will explore taking the matter to civil court. YAFFED is seeking to represent parents from within the communities who have children currently enrolled in the schools. According to the Jewish Week, a spokesman for Attorney General Schneiderman declined to comment because the issue might "be the subject of future litigation". The New York State Education Department referred the matter to New York City Department of Education.

The NYC Department of Education (DOE) announced in 2015 it would investigate allegations that nearly 40 ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools, or yeshivas, in NYC were failing to meet state education requirements. But nine months later the DOE refused to provide any evidence that the investigation had actually begun. Thereafter YAFFED began an "evidence drive" collecting materials from "yeshiva graduates of Hasidic yeshivas and parents of current yeshiva students" that would demonstrate whether Hasidic schools in NY are meeting state-mandated secular education requirements. YAFFED states that it has already collected such materials as textbooks with certain subjects "blacked out", and report cards for boys of high school age that listed "no secular subjects at all". The investigation was still ongoing in August 2018, stymied by the refusal of half of yeshivas under investigation to allow DOE investigators entry. Richard Carranza, the New York City schools chancellor, promised that "appropriate follow up action" would be undertaken.

In April 2018 a bill was passed, pushed through the state legislature by state Sen. Simcha Felder, a Democrat who has caucused with Republicans, that puts ultra-Orthodox yeshivas under the authority of the state rather than local education officials, called the Felder amendment. In July 2018 YAFFED filed a federal lawsuit against Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state education officials over the Felder amendment, claiming that the Felder Amendment violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by giving special treatment to yeshivos, and also guaranteeing that one of the metropolitan area’s fastest-growing student populations will continue to receive “a sub-standard secular education.” YAFFED argued that it was unconstitutional for the New York City and State Education Departments to credit yeshivos for the learning that takes place during the limudei kodesh portion of the school day.

In November 2018 the state education department released new guidelines on the substantial equivalency rule, under what all private schools including religious schools are supposed to be inspected by local public school authorities every five years.

In January 2019 U.S. District Judge Leo Glasser has dismissed YAFFED's lawsuit over the so-called Felder amendment, ruling that the group lacks standing to sue over it.

Glasser implied in his ruling that the new state guidelines might render the group’s lawsuit moot. He said that under the new guidelines, the schools covered by the Felder amendment will be required to comply with “all of the same curriculum and hour requirements applicable to other private schools” and will face additional requirements related to the religious portion of the schools’ curriculum.

Moster said he disagreed. “The revised guidelines embody the separate and preferential treatment of ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, regardless of how the leaders of those schools feel about the guidelines,” Moster said in a statement. He said the group will press forward “in reforming the unjust system.”

The pro-yeshiva group Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools (PEARLS) said it applauded Glasser’s decision. “YAFFED’s campaign of harassment of the yeshivas must end,” the group said in a statement.

Community response
For many in the Orthodox Jewish community, YAFFED is viewed negatively because it works outside of the religious community's power structure, which is founded on the Torah, not financial stability. Ami Magazine, an ultra-Orthodox weekly magazine published internationally, apologized for publishing a YAFFED advertisement.

The Jewish Week reported that the major Haredi umbrella organizations, as well as some local yeshivas, have declined to comment on the issue. The paper interviewed local community members in support of the organization's efforts, but those interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity, for fear of community backlash.

The members in the Hasidic community have publicly responded to YAFFED by outlining their concerns over the effects on religious Jewish education by government intervention. Additionally, community members expressed concern over additional costs being placed on yeshivas and parents, and have pointed to failings of the public school system, rather than yeshiva education requirements, as being a more of a concern for government.

YAFFED has responded by pointing out the degree to which critics agree that the lack of secular education Hasidic schools is seriously lacking and challenging the funding argument.

Mayor de Blasio Warns 4 Yeshivos: Let Inspectors in Before Deadline
Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a blunt warning Wednesday to four yeshivos he said were not allowing inspectors in to see if they are in compliance with rules on secular education, threatening an end to government funding if they continued refusing.

“My message to those four yeshivas is — time’s up, you must let the [Department of Education] officials into your school,” the mayor said at an unrelated press conference on education. “If not there will be very serious consequences.”

PEARLS, an umbrella group for the yeshivos, pushed back on the mayor’s assertions, saying that not a single yeshivah has denied the city access. “Just a short few weeks ago, Commissioner Elia wrote a letter to Chancellor Carranza telling him that DOE needs training before it can conduct any substantial equivalency review visits,” PEARLS said in a statement. “The lack of training was the issue holding up the visits, not a misleading assertion that the yeshivos refused to let in th e reviewers.”

City officials aggressively sought access soon after the state Education Department set new guidelines in place in November for which subjects private schools must learn and how many hours a day they must engage in those studies. This is in order to comply with a vaguely worded constitutional requirement to be “substantially equivalent” to public schools. Following a complaint, the state reined the city in, giving them a deadline of Feb. 15 to work cooperatively with the yeshivos.

Judge Strikes Down New York’s New Education Rules Enforcing Higher School Standards For Yeshivas
A judge in Albany strikes down a plan to try to reform education at yeshivas and other religious schools.

New York State’s education department announced new guidelines in November, but a pro-yeshiva group filed a lawsuit challenging the new plan. The new guidelines were designed to make sure yeshivas are giving their students a proper education, something that some advocates claim they never got.

On Thursday, a State Supreme Court judge sided with the private schools, ruling “the court finds that the new guidelines are ‘rules’ that were not implemented in compliance with the state administrative procedure act and are hereby nullified.”

A statement from the Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools says: “We join with the more than 1,000 private schools that challenged the new guidelines in applauding the state supreme court’s decision declaring the new state education department guidelines null and void. This stops in its tracks SED’s effort to radically transform the relationship between the state and its private schools.”

A spokeswoman for the education department said the department is reviewing the decision “and will determine the appropriate next steps.”