Double Trouble Coming To New York Yeshivas This Week As the State Gears To Announce New Requirements

by CrownHeights.info

It is slated to be a hard week for New York State’s Yeshiva system with both the Press and the State gearing up for a double assault.

The first hit is expected Sunday in the form of a hit piece scheduled to be published in a large newspaper over what is supposed to be an in depth look into the yeshiva system. Suffice it to say that it is expected to be less than complimentary.

“The @nytimes is determined to besmirch my community with an innuendo-ridden hit piece,” wrote Assembly member Simcha Eichenstein on Twitter, noting that he had gone so far as to write his own Op-Ed in the NY Sun on the topic titled “All the News About Yeshivas That the Times Deems Unfit To Print”.

Yet the hardest hit this week will not come in the form of public opinion, but rather as state regulation.

The New York State Board of Regents, ignoring over 300,000 submitted letters in opposition, has announced it’s plans to put its proposed regulations into effect on Monday, setting the date of December 2023 for all schools to come into compliance or face closure.

Under the new proposed regulations, private and parochial schools would have six ways to prove they are offering education that is “substantially equivalent” to what is available in public schools, otherwise, local school districts would remain responsible for assessing the instruction provided in those schools.

Those six methods are:

-Participating in the international baccalaureate program.
-Regularly using SED-approved assessments that can be used to demonstrate student academic progress.
-Earning accreditation from an organization that is SED-approved.
-Being part of a school program that includes a high school registered by the Board of Regents; grades 1 through 8 of a nonpublic school that has a registered high school program will also be deemed substantially equivalent by virtue of the school’s high school registration.
-Being classified as an approved Private Special Education School (‘853’), State-Operated, or a State-Supported School (‘4201’).
-Delivering instruction approved by the United States government on a military base or service academy.

The news that the State plans to enact the new regulations was met will less than enthusiasm from the Yeshivas, prompting the PEARLSNY organization, an organization of Yeshivas considered as moderate, to come out with the following statement.

“Parents in New York have been choosing a Yeshiva education for more than 120 years, and they are proud of the successful results, and will continue to do the same, with or without the blessing or support of State leaders in Albany.”

The sentiment appears to be so widespread in the Orthodox Jewish community that it prompted Yosef H, a Crown Heights activist, to post a sarcastic thank you to the board. “Thank you @NYSEDNews /board of regents for uniting the Orthodox Jewish community,” he wrote. “You’ve declared a religious war against us which with G-d’s help we will win.”

While is far from the beginning of this fight, it is also most definitely also far from the end.