As the New York State’s Education Department begins accepting public comments Wednesday on proposed regulations for private-school instruction, officials are staying quiet on key components of the regulations that concern advocates for “substantially equivalent” academics in private schools.
The regulations lay out instructional ground that private schools must cover at each level of schooling, from math and science to health education and the visual arts to citizenship and the U.S. Constitution.
Rabbi David Niederman said in a statement on behalf of the PEARLS organization:
The regulations proposed by the State Education Department disregard the concerns expressed by more than 1,000 private schools from every segment of the nonpublic school community.
The proposed regulations disregard the long history of success demonstrated by private schools across New York State, they undermine the choices made by parents who choose private schools for their children, and they substitute the education bureaucracy in Albany for the private school leadership sought by parents and students.
The regulations proposed today are nothing more than a repackaging of the guidelines that were opposed by the entire private school community last Fall and declared null and void by the Albany Supreme Court this Spring. It is disappointing that the State Education Department failed to engage in dialogue with private school leaders prior to issuing these proposed regulations.
We remain willing to work collaboratively with the State Education Department. But we will continue to oppose SED’s attempt to impose top-down mandates on hundreds of thousands of private school children across the State. These proposed regulations will not be any more successful than the failed and rejected guidelines they replaced. We therefore urge SED to work with the private school community in a manner that respects the success, autonomy, history and purpose of private schools.
The recreation of Jewish life and learning in the United States after the destruction of the Holocaust was nothing short of miraculous. In 1944, there were two dozen Jewish schools in New York, with no more than 5000 students. Today, there are 165,000 students enrolled in more than 400 Jewish elementary and high schools in New York. State regulations cannot be allowed to hinder our mission or hamper our growth.
That’s right. When you take a “partner” (the government) into your “business” (parnossa through: Welfare/WIC, Food stamps, Medicaid, Section 8, etc.), especially in such a big way, then logically, they also have a big “say” in your lack of “career” education that leads to their greater expense. All the fancy articulation in response to that reality, is just plain disingenuous. BTW – In the old country, the government certainly didn’t pay any of your bills (and communism thereafter, wasn’t a choice people could deny). But here and now, we want all the government social welfare benefits, but then cry uncle… Read more »
…actually not everyone attending private Jewish schools is on welfare. government welfare is part of the cause of dependency on government, when you receive welfare you can afford to pay more in real estate, without welfare the demand for housing would be less as less people would be able to afford it, which in turn brings prices down to be more affordable. Government regulations make life more expensive. At the same time why are we worse than everyone else who is on welfare just because we are religious? why should Illegal undocumented immigrants get a free education, but religious tax… Read more »
the gov maybe have the right (technically) to impose its curiculum.
but it would be terrible policy even from a secular democratic liberal perspective. also alot of the motivation for attempting new rules is anti religious and even antisemitism.
certainly religious jews have the right and duty to put pressure and fight this in every legal way possible.
100% correct
What exactly are these new revised guidelines please post.