New Proposed Rules For NY Private Schools, Yeshivas Sparks Debate

NEW YORK — On Monday, the New York State Education Department presented a proposal for private schools to demonstrate the quality and equivalency of their instruction at the Board of Regents meeting. The new regulations would determine how private and religious schools across the state could show that they are meeting educational standards.

The state will accept public comment on the proposed regulations until May 30 before they become formalized. Some religious school leaders have expressed support for the regulations, revised from more stringent ones first proposed two years ago, while others have come out against this week's plan.

In Kiryas Joel, Orthodox leader Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, grand rebbe of Kiryas Joel wrote in a letter that his community would not accept the changes.

"Should we attempt to adapt the proposed guidelines, our parent body will revolt and create their own education system providing them what they're looking for."

The regulations are an effort to balance both the need to provide equal and fair education to all students in the state, while allowing for some measure of self-control from the parochial schools to determine curriculum.

“We have an obligation under the law to ensure all students receive an education that enables them to fulfill their potential and teaches them the skills and knowledge needed to contribute to society and participate in civic life,” Commissioner Betty Rosa said in a statement.

The state developed the plan, with what they dubbed "multiple pathways," with feedback from private schools, parents and teachers, the department said.

On Long Island, Richard Altabe, principal of Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, told Newsday that the new regulations were more reasonable than previous drafts, but that in principal "he and colleagues still objected to state intervention in matters touching on religious instruction."

The Department's efforts partly stem from a series of lawsuits in 2016 from Jewish yeshiva school graduates who say the education they received left them unprepared in basic academic subjects. A Department of Education investigation into New York City's yeshivas found that only two of 28 yeshivas looked at offered secular education that was substantially equivalent to public education in the city.

The new department guidelines would allow private schools to demonstrate competency in multiple ways, including state test metrics, instead of direct oversight from the public school system.

Naftuli Moster is the director of Yaffe, Young Advocates for Fair Education. He's been an advocate for improving the quality of instruction at parochial and private schools as part of the right to education all children have in New York State. He told the New York Times that he first heard the word molecule once he attended college.

This week, he told the New York Daily News that "We appreciate the state’s efforts to remedy the problem by promulgating new regulations," but added that he was worried about loopholes in the proposal.

There are 1,800 private schools across New York State, and more than a quarter of students in New York City attend a private or parochial school.