Ignorance is bliss.
That’s the message Brooklyn’s Jewish lawmakers who represent the 39 Yeshivas that allegedly teach little or no secular education appear to be sending to the families and children affected in their district.
The KCP polling of the lawmakers comes after the Department of Education, working on a credible tip from Yaffed, an organization committed to improving general studies education alongside traditional curricula of Judaic studies, has begun investigating the Yeshivas for non-compliance off state laws mandating a certain amount of secular studies in private schools.
Among the lawmakers that didn’t bother getting back to KCP on the issue were City Councilman David Greenfield and Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who between the two of them represent the bulk of Borough Park in their respective legislative bodies.
Meanwhile, Sheepshead Bay City Councilman Chaim Deutsch, who chairs the Subcommittee on Non-Public Schools, refused comment.
Borough Park/Flatbush State Senator Simcha Felder, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on New York City Schools, said he will refrain comment until the DOE completes their investigation.
Williamsburg City Councilman Stephen Levin, who is the only secular Jew representing a large Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, said he is just learning about the DOE investigation, but hasn’t personally seen any problems.
“I’ve visited yeshivas and seen first-hand secular education,” said Levin. “I haven’t been contacted by the DOE (regarding the investigation), but they (yeshivas) seem to be meeting high standards.”
Under State guidelines, public school districts are responsible for ensuring that non-public schools adhere to state instructional equivalency standards. Consistent with the State rule, the DOE is in the process of finalizing a set of requests that superintendents will send to the 39 Yeshivas in their districts.
Superintendents will consider the responses to these requests in determining whether the schools are following state guidelines and are delivering substantially equivalent instruction to that provided by the city’s public schools.
If the superintendent determines that substantially equivalent instruction is not being provided by the non-public school, the superintendent will work with the non-public school to develop a plan to remediate deficiencies.
“The City takes its responsibility to address any complaint very seriously, and we will be investigating these allegations. Everyone is held to the same standard, and there is zero tolerance for the kind of educational failure alleged,” said DOE Spokesperson Harry Hatfield.
But Yaffed Executive Director Naftuli Moster, who was raised in Borough Park as a Hasidic Jew, said the procedure the DOE is using to investigate the alleged infractions is troubling and “a clear attempt to skirt the issue.”
“Which Yeshiva is going to submit a written response admitting that they have been ignoring education standards for decades? We presented the DOE with 52 individual accounts attesting to the lack of general education in nearly 40 schools, and if they took the time to contact us, we could have provided them with even more information,” said Moster.
“From our perspective, all this indicates that the DOE is not taking its responsibility seriously and we will continue to explore legal action,” he added.
Moster also chided the local political leadership for not publicly supporting the effort for improved curriculum within Yeshivas and compliance with state standards.
“Politicians should address this crucial issue which, if left unchecked, can result in serious problems in the future,” he said.
