Following almost a decade of complaints that New York City yeshivas have been refusing to provide a complete education for their students, they have been taught Torah and how to apply for the public dole, but not English reading or writing, nor mathematics (beyond Gematria), nor history.
This clearly does not meet the state mandated requirements for education, but because of the political power of the ultra-Orthodox community, this has more honored in the breach than the observance.
Finally, the NYC Department of Education was forced to do it's damn job, and determined that 18 yeshivas (out of 25 or 27 schools investigated) were not meeting state educational standards. (Sort of, because of political rat-f$#@ery)
The city has determined that four Orthodox yeshivas are failing to provide an education “substantially equivalent” to what’s offered in public schools — and recommends the state reach the same conclusion for another 14 yeshivas the city says are ultimately under state authority.
The findings are the results of a long-stalled and politically thorny investigation that has stretched on since 2015.
The city found that just seven schools they investigated met standards. That’s in addition to two it found were up to standards in 2019.
The city says it could not make a final determination in the case of the 14 schools because of an amendment introduced in 2018 by state Sen. Simcha Felder, which gives the state education commissioner the power to make final determinations for schools that meet certain requirements, like having a bilingual program. For that reason, the ruling is not final for those 14 schools, and the recommendations will not be made public.
By, "Bilingual Programs," they mean Yiddish and English, and this bill was some of the aforementioned "political rat-f$#@ery".
State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa had ordered the city Department of Education to complete the inquiry — which, in 2019, the city Department of Investigation ruled had been delayed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration for political purposes — by today.
And here we have some more, "political rat-f$#@ery," courtesy of de Blasio.
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The schools are private, but do receive some state funding and, like all private schools in New York, are required to provide children with an education “substantially equivalent” to what is offered in public schools. The investigation kicked off a debate of what exactly substantially equivalent means, prompting the state to develop rules for determining it.
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The investigation, and the guidelines from the state, kicked off massive outcry from Orthodox groups, who have characterized them as an attack on religious liberty.
Mandy Rice-Davies Applies. (Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?)
If the yeshivas were not accepting some fairly substantial government subsidies, it could be argued that it was just their business, though it could also be argued that the schools, and the parents who send there kids there, as Jews are commanded to be prepare themselves to support themselves and their families.
Rashi was a vintner, the Baal Shem Tov was an innkeeper, and Maimonides was one of the most distinguished physicians of his day. (His mom must have been so proud)
The use of Torah as an excuse not to support one's self is literally against the Jewish law that these folks claim to observe.
About 2 millennia ago this was explicitly stated in Pirkei Avot 4:6, "Do not make the Torah into a crown with which to aggrandize yourself, and don't use it as a spade with which to dig into them."
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