The New York State Education Department is cutting off public funding to two Brooklyn yeshivas and ordering parents to find alternative educational arrangements for their children next year, citing the schools’ failure to meet secular education standards.
It’s the most significant set of consequences faced by any school in the ongoing fight between education officials and Hasidic institutions in New York over laws requiring that yeshivas, like all schools, meet standards in core subjects like English and math. After years of battles in court, the halls of government, and the public square, this is the first time the state has effectively closed a Hasidic school.
The two yeshivas are in Williamsburg, the center of the city’s Satmar Hasidic community... They were notified of the enforcement decisions on Feb. 11 after ignoring final warnings issued in December, according to the education department.
By July 1, parents must find “a different, appropriate education setting” for their children and report their choice to authorities, according to a letter template that the Department of Education provided to the yeshivas for distribution. Three options were listed: a different religious school, a public school, or homeschooling.
One of the mantras I keep hearing from defenders of these schools is that this is a war against Yeshivas. An unprecedented attack. The government is interfering with parental rights to educate their children as they see fit. Denying our people rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
I understand why so many on the right feel this way. But I reject the idea that Yeshivas are under attack. It is is not an attack on Yeshivas. It is an attack on ignorance. It does not inhibit the ability of parents to teach children their religious values. Or even values specific to a particular brand of Chasidim. That kind education begins in the home and is reinforced by parents, family members, peer groups, and the broader Chassidic community to which they specifically belong. Their schools may add to those influences. But even without them those values will be instilled in them. Especially in the closed and tight-knit communities in which they will likely spend their entire lives.
A war on Yeshivas? How is it a war on Yeshivas when the vast majority of even right-wing Yeshivas comply with NYSED’s requirements and are therefore left alone? How is denying Jewish children an education Jewishly when they are given the option of sending them to one of the hundreds of right-wing religious schools that do comply? Schools that already have Chassidic parents much like those whose schools have just been closed for non-compliance?
I’m sorry, but calling this a war on Yeshivas is a false flag designed to rally the troops. To get people upset at the government so that they will leave us alone.
Part of the defense offered by their defenders is that the products of these substandard schools are nevertheless productive members of society and upstanding citizens. They live lives enviable to many public school parents. And those students end up comprising communities that are generally drug-free and crime-free, family-oriented, and charitable. They argue that this community should be judged against communities populated by public school graduates who have not reached those milestones - some of whom go on to become gang members, drug dealers, or live in hopelessness and poverty. Despite having attended a public school.
That may be true. But many factors contribute to the conditions in which each community ends up living. I would argue that the bad outcomes of some of those public school students did not happen because school administrators refused to comply with the state mandate for a core secular curriculum.
Sure, people have a right to remain ignorant if they so choose. Especially if they do not become a burden to society. And generally, they are not. But they should also have the right to choose not to be ignorant by finding a school that will enable their children to have more opportunities. A right their community denies them by requiring. that they attend one of their own schools. At least via social pressure, if not an actual decree.
If this were really an attack on Yeshivas, I would be the first in line to protest. But since these parents can send their children to any of the hundreds of Yeshivas that already exist and do qualify... or even home school them of they wish, I don’t feel sorry for them. In fact, I am actually quite happy for their children.
Let them learn how to speak English properly and write a paragraph in English without a million spelling and grammar mistakes. Let them have more career options. They can still be as Chassidic as they want. No one will stop them. That would be a win for everybody.
