Blas ‘stalling’ yeshiva probe
The Department of Education has vetted only six of the 39 ultraOrthodox Jewish schools under investigation for failing to provide secular instruction — despite launching its probe two years ago.
Critics have questioned the DOE’s appetite for the matter, claiming Mayor de Blasio has delayed meaningful action because he doesn’t want to alienate the powerful Hasidic voting bloc.
According to an August letter from DOE attorney Howard Fried- man to a lawyer representing the yeshivas, Avi Schick, department officials visited the small batch of schools last spring and hoped to vet the remainder this year.
Young Advocates for Fair Education, an activist group lobbying for yeshiva reform, held a press conference at City Hall earlier this week calling the probe a “charade.”
YAFFED founder Naftuli Moster said he was shocked that only six of the 39 yeshivas were contacted — and speculated that they were the milder offenders.
Moster noted that the visits occurred well after the start of the probe.
“This goes to show that because they didn’t feel any pressure, they didn’t bother to conduct the investigation,” he said.
The group has argued that yeshivas aren’t teaching rudimentary academics, in violation of state education law that requires basic secular instruction.
To hear Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña tell it, they’re doing the most comprehensive investigation ever to see if many yeshivas are depriving students of a legally required secular education.
The probe is well into its third year with no sign of ending anytime soon, and Fariña says her crack investigators plan to spend at least “the next few months” on the job — i.e., long past the November election.
In fact, an August letter from DOE attorney Howard Friedman says they’ve only visited six of the 39 targeted schools.
You can see why the Orthodox Jewish activists who first raised this issue back in 2015 have lost any faith in Team de Blasio to treat this seriously. And why they rallied at City Hall this week to release their own report — compiled in far less time — listing the worst school offenders.
State law requires all parochial schools to offer instruction “substantially equivalent” to that in public schools. But the activists charge, and news reports confirm, that many Orthodox Jewish schools offer only the barest secular education in elementary school and none whatsoever after age 13.
That leaves many students barely literate in English, unskilled in math and totally unequipped for the workforce.
It should be a simple matter to determine if the charges are true. But while the mayor insists he has “zero tolerance” for any violations, he also says his teams need to visit more schools “to get to a more firm conclusion” — a claim Fariña echoes.
And neither will even hint at when their “investigation” will be finished.
It’s an obvious stonewall, and plainly politically motivated. Add these yeshiva students to the long list of city children whom de Blasio is willing to sacrifice on the altar of his ambitions.