In a sweeping challenge to private Hasidic Jewish schools in New York City, state education authorities determined that a major boys’ school in Brooklyn violated state law by failing to provide a basic education.
The decision marks the first time the state has taken action against a Hasidic boys’ school, one of dozens of private academies that provide strong religious instruction in Yiddish but little instruction in English and math, and virtually none in science, history or social studies. . It also served as a stern rebuke to the administration of Mayor Eric Adams, whose Education Department had recommended that the school be deemed compliant with a law requiring private schools to provide an education comparable to what is offered in public schools.
The decision, released last week by Commissioner Betty Rosa and previously unreported, stems from a lawsuit filed by a parent against the school alleging a lack of secular education. The decision requires city education officials to work with the school, Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to come up with a plan for improvement, something many Hasidic schools have long fought to avoid. State officials will have the final say on this improvement plan, which will put additional pressure on city officials who had previously avoided intervening in schools.
A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But the potential ramifications extend beyond a single school. The ruling could be a harbinger of much tighter oversight of Hasidic schools and could open the door to more lawsuits or complaints about those that may not be complying with state law.
Timeline: Oversight of Hasidic Schools in New York
State law requires that all private schools provide education comparable to public schools. In 2015, the New York City Department of Education said it would investigate complaints about the quality of secular education in Hasidic Jewish community schools. Here is a timeline of the investigation:
“The state has done well,” said Beatrice Weber, a mother of 10 who sued her youngest child’s school and has since left the Hasidic community. “I hope now things will really change.” Ms Weber was recently named head of Young Advocates for Fair Education, a group that has lobbied for more secular education in Hasidic schools.
The ruling will also provide the first test of a new set of state rules aimed at regulating private schools, including Jewish schools, known as yeshivas, which, like other religious schools, have largely been allowed to operate. without government oversight for decades. Those regulations, which went into effect just two weeks ago, say schools that don’t follow state law could lose public funding.
Hasidic leaders fiercely opposed the new rules before they were approved by the State Board of Regents last month, casting them as an existential threat to the community. Earlier this week, a group of yeshivas and their supporters sued the state over the rules. Many of the complainants were non-Hasidic schools that provide secular education and would likely not be affected by the regulations. The lawsuit has not been previously reported.
“Yeshivas are the central and irreplaceable pillar of Orthodox Jewish life in New York City,” reads the lawsuit, which seeks to strike down the regulations.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for one of the groups that filed the complaint, Parents for Educational and Religious Freedom in Schools, defended Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem.
“Educators from the city’s Department of Education have visited the school several times and determined that it met the substantial equivalency standard,” spokesman Richard Bamberger said, referring to the statement. state law. “It’s disappointing that appointees in the state Department of Education don’t accept the city’s findings.”
Last month, the New York Times reported that more than 100 Hasidic boys’ schools in Brooklyn and the lower Hudson Valley have raised at least $1 billion in taxpayer dollars over the past four years, but many denied their students a basic secular education.
The Times found that Hasidic boys’ yeshivas who pass state-standardized tests perform worse than any other school in New York State, and that religion teachers in many schools have frequently used the corporal punishment to enforce order, impeding learning.
Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem, which has about 500 enrolled boys, received more than $4 million from the government in the past year before the pandemic, records show.
In her ruling, Ms Rosa said New York City education officials had recommended in July that the school be found to be in compliance with the law, but she rejected that suggestion.
The commissioner wrote that the school refused to allow visits from state Department of Education officials last month and repeatedly refused to provide evidence that it was complying with the law on education. state education, even after Ms. Rosa warned that previous visits to the school by city officials did not prove that the school offered instruction in all required subjects.
She said the submissions she received from city officials actually indicated that the yeshiva does not provide sufficient instruction in English, social studies or science. The school’s math instruction seemed to be better, but still fell short of what’s offered in public schools, as required by state law, Rosa said. The commissioner wrote that the yeshiva administers state exams in English and math, but the “vast majority” of students at all grade levels failed the exams and performed well below the state school average in the city.
City officials haven’t provided enough evidence to back up their claims, and they don’t appear to have investigated Ms. Weber’s specific claims about the school, Ms. Rosa wrote. “None of these shortcomings promotes trust” in the city’s education department, she wrote.