18 Dec Yeshiva Parents Tell the State: Don’t Eliminate Our Torah Studies

The NYS Education Department released guidelines 3 weeks ago about the substantial equivalency of instructions that nonpublic schools are required to provide.

The guidelines acknowledge that religious schools are different than public schools, but require all religious schools to teach the same courses as the local public schools, and do devote the same amount of time to those subjects.

The new instructions, accompanied by tool kits and checklists, leaves very little flexibility for what yeshiva elementary schools can teach. For grades 1-4, it mandates instructions in 7 subjects at an attainment level similar to state standards for public schools. For grades 5-8, it requires 11 subjects, with strict time requirements for most of these subjects. Adding up all of the subjects and time requirements, a yeshiva will have to devote more than six hours every day, five days a week to secular studies.

It further requires school districts to review all religious schools over the next two and a half years, and then to reinspect all of the schools over the subsequent five years.

The new guidelines state that if a school is found to be non-equivalent, parents will be given 30-45 days to transfer their children to a different school. After 30-45 days, the school will be defunded and the parents will be in violation of the truancy laws.

The State Education Department seems to have realized that it makes no sense to require Yeshivas to devote so many hours to secular studies, and so it included a footnote that says that for religious schools, some of their requirements “may be met by the incorporation of the State learning standards of such subjects into the syllabi for other courses. Such integration must be documented in writing and kept on file at the school.”

Does that mean that yeshivas will now depend on the whims of bureaucrats in school districts all across New York State to understand the benefits and skills derived from limudei kodesh?

TELL NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION COMMISSIONER MARYELLEN ELIA NO!! TELL HER THAT AS A YESHIVA PARENT YOU REJECT HER ATTEMPT TO IMPOSE HER CURRICULUM ON OUR YESHIVAS!

New York State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia has issued new guidelines that require all private schools – including our yeshivas – to adopt a curriculum that the State has prepared.

She has directed that all private schools – including our yeshivas – must be inspected to enforce the new curriculum. She even requires all yeshiva teachers to be evaluated by the State. This new curriculum comes with a comprehensive course list. There are seven required classes for grades 1-5, and 11 required classes for grades 5-8. The State is imposing a total of seven hours a day of secular studies in grades 5-8. In fact, public schools are only required to provide 5 hours a day of instruction.

Leading Rabbonim such as Rav Elya Brudny and Rav Yisroel Reisman have spoken out publicly about these intrusive guidelines. The Agudah, Torah Umesorah and PEARLS have written to the Commissioner to let her know that these guidelines are unacceptable to all of our private schools in New York State.

Even the Catholic school community has spoken up and told Commissioner Elia that they reject her guidelines and have directed that all Catholic schools not to cooperate with them.

Now the Yeshiva community needs to make its voice heard. We need to let Commissioner Elia know that we choose yeshiva education for a reason. We trust our Rabbis, our principals, and our leaders to create the school schedule and curriculum that works best for our children.

We do not need these new State Education Department rules! We do not want these new State Education Department rules! We will not accept these new State Education Department rules!

Commissioner Elia has threatened yeshiva parents with sanctions if we do not bend to her will. On the day she released these guidelines she said that if yeshivas don’t change and adopt her curriculum parents “would be notified they need to transfer students within . . . six weeks to two months,” and if they didn’t “they’d be considered truant and that’s another whole process that gets triggered.”

Tell Commissioner Elia that yeshiva parents will not be manipulated. Tell Commissioner Elia that yeshiva parents will not back down.