Board Approves SED Guidelines, Final Vote Tuesday Expected to Adopt anti-Yeshiva Measures

By: Boropark24 Staff

As was widely expected, the State Board of Regents adopted the suggested guidelines from the State Education Department which were released Friday, and they are expected to hold a final vote Tuesday--plunging the frum community into uncharted waters, under the threat of government action against yeshivos. 

“They [the regulations] are every bit as bad as had been promised six months ago,” said one longtime observer of this saga. “Since that time, 350,000 comments in opposition poured in, and one would think that the democratic reaction to such a response would be to back off. Friday’s report shows they [SED] have no such plans.”

 As we have detailed in the past, a yeshiva being non-compliant with these requirements would result in the loss of funding that would bring it to its knees in many cases, and parents sending their children to such a yeshiva would be considered truant, which is punishable with imprisonment.

In the hundreds of pages of documents that comprise the new guidelines, the state makes clear that they intend to enforce with ferocity–removing funding from districts that fail to oversee the non-public schools within their purview. .  

In response to the the release of the guidelines, PEARLS released the following statement:

“The State's confirmation today that it intends to dictate the curriculum and faculty at private and parochial schools is deeply disappointing and we oppose it.

“Those who want State control can choose the public schools. Parents who pay for a private or parochial school education do so because they believe in the mission and educational approach of those schools' leaders.

“The State affirmed today that there are more than twenty instructional prerequisites that private schools will have to offer if they want to educate students in New York.  A Government checklist, devised by lawyers and enforced by bureaucrats, hampers rather than advances education.

“Parents in New York have been choosing a yeshiva education for more than 120 years, and they are proud of the successful results, and will continue to do the same, with or without the blessing or support of State leaders in Albany.”

According to many who have watched this process, the next step may be a lawsuit challenging the legality of such intervention into our system–litigation that may very likely wind up in the Supreme Court of the United States, as we defend our mesorah, our heritage which is so precious to us.