Ed. bid has schools ‘losing their religion’

A group of religious schools in the city, including a large number of yeshivas, are pushing back against new oversight rules they feel will infringe upon their rights to provide children with an education.

The schools have sent 180,000 letters to the State Education Department opposing draft guidelines for new measures on the religious institutions.

While state officials maintain that the oversight will ensure students a fair education, the schools say the actions hinder their ability to give religious education to Jewish children.

Under the proposal, nonpublic schools would need to get accredited — or registered through the state — or demonstrate academic progress on state-approved exams. Schools that did not comply would have to submit to review by their local school districts.

“What you propose is an assault on the Orthodox and Chassidic,” Brooklyn Law School professor and yeshiva parent Aaron Twerski wrote to state officials. “Your oversight is not needed and is not welcome.”

The proposed guidelines are another push from the Education Department to ensure that independent and parochial schools provide an education that is at least “substantially equivalent” to what is offered in the public school sector, as required by law.

Quality questioned

Some Jewish leaders were thankful for what they claimed was non-intrusive oversight for yeshivas that have been criticized as lacking in basic instruction.

“These regulations need to be seriously tightened in order for them to satisfy our concerns,” said Naftuli Moster, head of the nonprofit Young Advocates for Fair Education. “But they’re certainly a step in the right direction.”

Previous attempts at more oversight were met with resistance from a wide array of independent school groups, from elite Manhattan private schools to Catholic schools.

“Catholic schools are the very model for education in America, and we have the test scores and graduation rates to prove it,” said Michael Deegan, superintendent of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of New York. “While we welcome most any measurement of our rigorous academics, we remain concerned with the notion of local school districts being empowered in any way to be the arbiters of such scrutiny.”

The archdiocese added it is confident in the State Education Department’s ability to “strike a balance” between the schools and state standards.