Legislers in New York are considering a measure that would dramatically weaken their supervision of religious schools, possibly a great victory for the State’s Chassidic Jewish Community.
The proposal, which could be part of a deal of the state budget, has expressed in -depth concern among educational experts, including the state education commissioner, Betty Rosa, who said in an interview that such changes amount to a “travesty” for children who go to religious schools who do not offer secular secular education.
“We would really endanger the future of these young people,” by weakening the law, said Mrs. Rosa. “If the architect of education in this system, how could I possibly support that decision,” she added.
Government Kathy Hochul on Monday announced a budget agreement of $ 254 billion But acknowledged that many of the details are still being cut out.
Behind the scenes seems to be an important bottleneck whether the governor and legislative power will agree to the changes in the supervision of the private school, according to various people with direct knowledge of the negotiations, including a delay in possible consequences for private schools that that Receive huge amounts from taxpayers dollars, but sometimes the state education law split By not offering primary education in English or mathematics.
The State is also considering reducing the standards that a school should meet to show that it is following the law.
Although the potential changes in the State Education Act are technically applicable to all private schools, they are mainly relevant to Chassidic schools, which give largely religious lessons in Yiddish and Hebrew in their all-boys schools, known as Yeshivas.
The potential deal is the result of years of lobbying by chassidic leaders and their political representatives.
The legislative leaders acknowledged that changes in the education standard were considered, but refused to provide additional details.
Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Senate majority leader, said on Tuesday that conversations on the subject were ‘underway’ and that she was not sure what would be in the final budget legislation. A spokesperson for Governor Hochul refused to comment. Assembly speaker Carl Heastie said that an overview of a deal “was on the table” when he was asked about it earlier this week.
The effort was led by Simcha Felder, who recently represented a strip of Brooklyn in the Senate before he was elected in the city council, and Simcha Eichenstein, who represents a similar area in the meeting.
The Hasidic Community has long seen the government supervision of their schools as an existential threat, and it has emerged as their best political issue in recent years.
It has taken About fresh urgency in recent monthsSuch as the State Education department, led by Mrs. Rosa, has been moved for the first time to maintain the law, after years of deliberation and delay.
The Department has announced plans to close six Hassidic Yeshivas that, according to her, do not comply with the state law, in some cases because the schools refused to meet state education officials to discuss improvement plans.
That step, by far the strongest action that New York has taken to combat schools that are said to be violating the law, amounts to a sausage case scenario for chassidic leaders.
There is little dispute, even among chassidic leaders, that many Yeshivas in the Lower Hudson Valley and parts of Brooklyn do not offer adequate secular training. Some religious leaders have bragged about their refusal to comply with the law and have forbidden families to have English books in their homes.
The government of mayor Eric Adams, who is closely tailored to the chassidic community, Discovered in 2023 that 18 Brooklyn Yeshivas are not complying with the Staats ActA finding supported by state education officials.
A study from the New York Times from 2022 showed that scores from All-Boys Yeshivas have collected around $ 1 billion in government financing for a period of four years, but did not give basic training, and that teachers used corporal punishment in some schools.
It is clear why chassidic leaders, who are deeply skeptical about the supervision of the government, would like to weaken and delay the consequences for the schools they help run.
It is less clear why officials chosen would admit to those requirements during this specific budget season. There is a widespread speculation in Albany that Mrs. Hochul, confronted with what a difficult re -election fight can be next year, hopes to be a favor of chassidic officials who can improve her chances with approval.
The Hasidic Community tends to vote as a block to influence the local elections with a low bend, and some legislators have suggested that religious leaders can endorse specific candidates if their allies in the legislative power agree to weaken the law.
Hasidic voters are increasingly conservative and tend to prefer Republicans in general election competitions.
That could benefit Mrs Hochul’s potential Republican challengers in next year’s race, representative Mike Lawler, which is strongly connected to the Hasidic community that forms a considerable part of his Hudson Valley DistrictAnd representative Elise Stefanik, an important Trump bondmate, even if Mrs. Hochul offers a concession about Yeshivas. A potential democratic challenger, representative Ritchie Torres of the Bronx, has made an aggressive effort to realize Jewish voters.
Since the budget negotiations have reached their final, insane phase, some members have expressed their concern about the amendment to the Education Act that puts their leadership under pressure to accept, and said they have not yet seen these proposals in Bill form.
The news about the potential deal achieved Michael A. Rebell, a prominent education lawyer, who wrote earlier this week in an e -mail to one of the best teaching officers of the Governor that he would consider sue the state if the law was weakened.
“If this secret, behind the scenes deal is accepted by the governor, we will have to challenge it publicly,” Mr. Rebell wrote in the e-mail, obtained by The Times. “And we will also consider bringing a constitutional lawsuit to oppose it.”
The State Education Act of New York, related to private schools, known as the substantial equivalence law, has been in the books for more than a century.
It was an obscure, non -contraversible rule until a few years ago, when graduates from Hasidic Yeshivas who said they were denied a basic training, submitted a complaint to the state and claimed that their education made them unprepared by navigating the secular world and finding decent jobs.
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