Yeshivas, critics hit new regs for oversight of N.Y. schools
Proposed new state Education Department regulations unveiled Monday on oversight of private schools — including ultra-Orthodox yeshivas that’ve been accused of failing to provide even a basic secular education — are already drawing wide-ranging criticism.
The regulations, introduced at the monthly meeting of the Board of Regents, were hit by critics who argued they won’t do enough to force the schools to beef up secular education and supporters claiming they will infringe on the schools’ ability to provide religious instruction.
“We appreciate the state’s efforts to remedy the problem by promulgating new regulations,” said Naftuli Moster, a former yeshiva student and founder of the advocacy group YAFFED, which lodged a 2015 complaint against education in yeshivas that spurred the new regulations.
“We do, however, have serious concerns with some aspects of these regulations,” he added. “At the moment, they include several loopholes that, if left unaddressed, could allow the status quo to continue.”
Agudath Israel, an organization that represents Haredi orthodox yeshivas, also objected to the proposed regulations — but for different reasons.
“Nowhere in the proposed regulations is there any mention of the need to take into account the educational value of religious studies,” the group wrote in a statement. “By ignoring this essential component of yeshiva education, the proposed new regulations may result in yeshivas having to make major changes to their school day schedules ... this is entirely unacceptable.”
At issue is a state law that requires private schools to offer an education “substantially equivalent” to that provided at public schools. State Education Department officials have been working for years on regulations to clarify how “substantial equivalency” should be defined and how school districts should enforce the law.
The new regs give private schools several ways to show they’re offering a legally adequate education, including getting accredited by an outside organization or offering state Education Department-sanctioned exams. Schools that can’t meet any of those criteria must submit to a review by the local school district — like the 2019 investigation of 28 ultra-Orthodox yeshivas by the city’s Education Department that found 26 of them weren’t meeting legal standards.
The proposed regulations, which the Board of Regents will vote on in September, would require schools to declare how they plan to meet the legal requirement by December 2023.
Critics of the ultra-Orthodox yeshivas worry the new rules offer too many loopholes to private schools.
David Bloomfield, a professor of Education Leadership, Law and Policy at Brooklyn College and CUNY’s Graduate Center, asserted private schools could satisfy the testing requirement simply by offering state exams — without teaching any of the content behind the tests.
“They’re fatally flawed legally and full of loopholes that fail to guarantee a substantially equivalent education,” Bloomfield said.
Agudath Israel, meanwhile, voiced concerns the new regs fail to recognize the academic value of religious education.
“Yeshiva students devote long hours to the study of the Chumash, Mishnah, Talmud and various other religious texts — a course of study that is well known to be a rigorous academic discipline of the highest order,” the group wrote, insisting the scholarly value of religious teaching should count toward meeting the “substantial equivalency” requirement.
Moster forcefully rejected that argument, and pushed for a tighter timeline to enforce the substantial equivalency law.
“The consequences are dire,” he said, “both for the community and for society that has to shoulder the burden of an uneducated population.”