In battle over yeshivos, State Ed isn't giving up
TThe battle for the soul of New York state’s yeshivos took a sharp turn mere hours before this past Shabbos — but the education department attempted to bury the story in a weekend news dump.
Two days after one court deadline passed, and two days before a high-profile meeting, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) announced abruptly that it will again try to ram through onerous rules governing what yeshivos and other private schools must do to be considered “substantially equivalent” to public schools, a constitutional requisite.
The requirements are so sweeping in nature that not a single yeshivah — from the most chassidish in Williamsburg to the most modern in Manhattan — would be able to abide without radically changing schedules and curriculum.
As with the state’s first attempt to impose the new regime eight months ago, some of the compulsory parts most threatening to the Torah world are the obligation to teach nearly four and a half hours a day of secular studies and the need to inform students of their “right” to pursue alternative lifestyles.
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