Yes, New York must ensure quality academics in all schools, including yeshivas

Gary Stern , Nancy Cutler | The Journal News

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State plans to make sure K-12 private schools teach a full slate of academics has produced distress, bordering on dread, in the Orthodox Jewish community. The specter of the state enforcing existing law spurred an effort to stall the state budget and has inspired social media campaigns.

For decades, the state Education Department largely ignored private-school instruction, and many in the Hasidic and Orthodox community are suspicious of Albany’s seemingly sudden interest in their classrooms.

State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia and the state Board of Regents, though, deserve credit for deciding to enforce a state law, on the books since at least 1961, that requires private school instruction in math, science and more to be “substantially equivalent” to what’s taught in public schools. Growing numbers of yeshivas are serving the burgeoning Hasidic and Orthodox population, primarily in Brooklyn and Rockland County, and there are legitimate concerns that at least some forsake secular academic subjects. It would have been easy, and irresponsible, for the state to continue to look away.

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Still, Elia faces delicate, potentially perilous challenges as she prepares to soon release new guidelines for state oversight of private school instruction. She needs to devise a system to not only measure academic instruction within a range of religion-based curricula, but offer recommendations and support to schools that fall short, all in the face of Orthodox fears of government overreach.

A blunt approach by the state is certain to produce an Orthodox backlash and could undermine what is ultimately a serious endeavor. Every school system in New York state, whether public, private or even home-schooling, is subject to certain state curriculum standards. It is reasonable to expect that every student should receive an education that prepares her or him for further study, work and life — and to be part of the American civic fabric. Roman Catholic schools have long done so with great success.

Orthodox concerns about state oversight are tied, in part, to historical worries about government intrusion on religious freedom and forced assimilation. Many championed state Sen. Simcha Felder of Brooklyn when he held up passage of the state budget in April, seeking to kill state oversight of yeshivas before it could begin, a move that angered public education advocates.

Yosef Rapaport, a Hasidic media consultant, told the Editorial Board that many Orthodox parents have had terrible experiences navigating what he called the "education industrial complex" to get services for students with disabilities. "The atmosphere is so poisoned," he said.

'Attack on their lifestyle'

The board met with two vocal Orthodox critics of state oversight, Rapaport and Rockland County Legislator Aron Wieder.

Wieder said that many Orthodox parents don't believe that state oversight is really about improving education. "This is an attack on their lifestyle," he said. "This is an attack on the culture."

Orthodox skeptics of state oversight tend to stick to a few core arguments: Yeshivas produce many successful graduates; parents' choices to send their kids to yeshivas shouldn't be questioned; and yeshiva instruction on Jewish texts covers law, finance, ethics, and other academic subjects that outsiders may not understand.

But these skeptics usually avoid the question at hand: Do yeshivas meet state guidelines for academic instruction?

VIEW: Rockland legislator uses social media to restrict yeshiva debate

REPLY: Wieder calls critique of social media 'fake news'

Skeptics also fear that Elia has been overly influenced by a small group of yeshiva critics. Much of their concern, and ire, has been focused on Naftuli Moster, who leads YAFFED, which advocates for improved curricula in yeshivas. Some Orthodox leaders, including Wieder, question Moster's motivations and have made him the focus of social media campaigns that have become overly personal and unseemly.

Clarkstown Police are investigating a death threat against Moster, which Wieder condemned when asked about it by the Editorial Board.

Through the lens of East Ramapo

Elia, meanwhile, is no dupe. The state already had monitors in the East Ramapo School District when she become commissioner in 2015, and Elia has been deeply involved in the budgetary and educational hurdles facing the district. She has heard concerns about educational offerings at some of the district's yeshivas. More than two-thirds of school-age children in East Ramapo attend non-public schools. Elia, as the state's education leader, has a responsibility to ensure a quality academic education for every single one.

Last year, Elia began speaking of plans to update state guidelines for finally enforcing the law on private-school instruction. The process slowed when Felder's budget gambit produced vague changes to the law, requiring a broader view of yeshiva instruction but giving the state commissioner more power.

Right now, school district superintendents are responsible for checking on instruction at private schools within their boundaries. School boards have authority to find that a private school's instruction is not "substantially equivalent" and to withdraw the limited public funding that goes to private schools. In East Ramapo, the school board is not likely to intervene in private school affairs.

Elia should use her authority with purpose. She has said she would like to see school districts contact private schools on a rotating basis about their academic offerings. She also plans state training on the new guidelines for all involved.

As always, money is a concern. For one thing, oversight costs. A district like East Ramapo will need some sort of additional funding to cover oversight of dozens and dozens of yeshivas (and other private schools).

And what happens if investigators find academic deficiencies at yeshivas or other schools? Calls to add or revamp curricula may come with costs that yeshivas don't want to cover. As Rapaport put it, "Oversight without funding is simply unfair." Wieder said he would welcome educational improvements if the state pays.

Creating new guidelines and fanning out to see what private schools teach may be the easy part of Elia's quest. Bringing about change at a private school most likely won't be. But the state's rules apply to all schools. Elia should continue her work. The law should be followed or rewritten, but not ignored.