Article

2019-01-08 -Land of the Free

New York State Declares War on Private Education

[PJ] In recent years, certain advocacy groups have criticized private Jewish schools, generally known as yeshivoth, claiming that the schools provide a substandard education. At issue is the interpretation of a New York state law passed in the late 19th century that requires private schools to provide an education "substantially equivalent" to that offered in the public schools. Through the decades, the various private school networks, whether religious or non-sectarian, have managed to meet this vague requirement to the satisfaction of local authorities and the New York State Education Department (NYSED).

Until now. Under substantial pressure from an organization called Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED), which has actually filed suit against NYSED to try to force the matter, NYSED recently issued detailed guidelines concerning its interpretation of "substantially equivalent." The guidelines contain a precise syllabus that must be followed, and also dictate how many hours per week are to be devoted to each of the secular subjects by grade level.

The result threw the world of private education in New York into a tizzy. Most glaringly, the guidance from NYSED required 35 hours a week of secular studies in grades 5 through 8 -- a requirement which would have left virtually no time for sacred studies, the raison d’être of religious schools.

Under intense public pressure via petitions, telephone calls, and emails, NYSED revised the guidelines. It eliminated the time requirements in grades 5 and 6, and cut the amount of time required for secular education in grades 7 and 8 roughly by half.

While that represented an improvement, it does not change the fact that suddenly, after over a century of peaceful co-existence, New York’s public education authority is attempting to dictate the content and form of secular education in private schools with different value systems.

Posted by Besoeker 2019-01-08 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11136 views ] Top

#1 Will NY Jews redirect their support accordingly?

Posted by gorb 2019-01-08 02:15|| 2019-01-08 02:15|| Front Page Top

#2 dunno... anyone taught talmudic analysis and logic should be able to handle quantum mechanics, no problem.

Posted by Kofi Chineter8175 2019-01-08 08:32|| 2019-01-08 08:32|| Front Page Top

#3 requires private schools to provide an education "substantially equivalent" to that offered in the public schools.

The students will just have to accept that substandard level: faddish curricula, crime in the classrooms, ignorant teachers, and general disruptions

Posted by Frank G 2019-01-08 09:11|| 2019-01-08 09:11|| Front Page Top

#4 Under intense public pressure via petitions, telephone calls, and emails, NYSED revised the guidelines. It eliminated the time requirements in grades 5 and 6, and cut the amount of time required for secular education in grades 7 and 8 roughly by half.

Tempest in a teapot? I don’t know enough to comment.

The Forward’s take can be read here. It should be noted that The Forward caters to the Progressive antireligious socialist stream of New York Times-reading New York City Jews — it’s the most astoundingly parochial news purveyer I have ever encountered.

I will note that this will only impact a small segment of ultra-Orthodox yeshivas. The Zionist Hebrew day schools, aimed at getting their students into Harvard, cover secular subjects more intensively than the public school curriculum requires.

Posted by trailing wife 2019-01-08 10:57|| 2019-01-08 10:57|| Front Page Top

#5 There is also this bit of recent history, making it all even less clear to me:

HOW NYS BLATANTLY LIED: New York State Promised Yeshivas STEM Funding, Instead They Gave Them Regulations

[YeshivaWorld] In April 2016, New York State promised yeshivas and other private schools millions of dollars in funding for teaching science, technology and math.

A Yeshiva World News investigation has uncovered that more than two-and-a-half years later, the State has still not distributed the first dollar to a single institution.

But this is worse than merely taking credit for something and failing to follow through. Politicians do that all the time.

What the State engineered here was a far more devious and damaging bait-and-switch.

Earlier this year, the State solicited applications for the new STEM funding from private schools. As part of the application process, all the private schools had to complete a questionnaire asking questions about their curriculum and had to attach their daily schedule of classes.

Here’s what happened next:

The State didn’t give out any money, but it did issue new guidelines requiring yeshivas to transform their schedules and to change their curriculum.

As Yeshiva World News has previously reported, these new State guideline require yeshiva elementary schools to provide nearly seven hours a day of secular studies classes.

What chutzpah!

The State held out the promise of money to get yeshivas and other religious schools to share their curriculum and schedules, and then used that information to impose new regulations on yeshivas, and all without actually giving yeshivas a nickel.

The new guidelines for yeshiva curriculum were announced with great fanfare by the Education Commissioner at a press conference in which she threatened that if yeshivas do not comply with her edict, “parents would be notified they need to transfer students within a reasonable time frame of six weeks to two months,” and that “if a student remains at the school after that, they’d be considered truant and that’s another whole process that gets triggered.”

Posted by trailing wife 2019-01-08 11:01|| 2019-01-08 11:01|| Front Page Top

#6 So they are pushing indoctrination rather than education big time.

Posted by JohnQC 2019-01-08 22:40|| 2019-01-08 22:40|| Front Page Top

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