The New York State Council voted in favor of new regulations on private school extracurriculars, requiring each school to prove to state officials that their curriculum is “at least substantially equivalent” to that offered in public schools
A major concern among the ultra-orthodox public in New York, the state of New York passed a law that gives the state control over the school curriculum in private schools, including ultra-orthodox schools and yeshivas. The new regulations on summer studies in private schools require each school to prove to state officials that their curriculum is “at least substantially equivalent” to that offered in public schools. It is not yet clear how the yeshiva will deal with the new laws.
The passage of the regulations sharply changes the relationship between state education officials and private schools, after a years-long struggle over what education each child deserves and whether it should be determined by parents or the government.
After years of fighting on all fronts, the City Council of the State of New York met today (Tuesday) to discuss the issue of forcing foreign studies on the ultra-orthodox educational institutions known as private schools. Although the New York City Department of Education has received over 350,000 letters of objection from parents, it has announced its intention to introduce the new regulations mandating the teaching of Libya in yeshivots, which will have to accept the requirements or close their doors by December 2023.
The new laws are supposed to force Jewish educational institutions to exclude sacred studies and add extracurriculars, and also include such studies that are not suitable for the children’s religion and tradition. These laws even give the government control to intervene in all matters of private schools, to the extent that they can oblige the educational institutions to appoint educators who are not suitable according to the spirit of the institutions.
Despite this, under an unprecedented smear campaign against ultra-orthodox education, the education department continued to insist and promote the laws. The culmination of the move was a defamatory and one-sided investigation published in recent days by the New York Times, one of the largest newspapers in the world, against the yeshiva in New York, an investigation that even led the yeshiva to threaten the newspaper with a libel suit.