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Last week I received a message from Agudah which said the following:
Following months of arduous litigation, the decision in the lawsuit challenging New York State Education Department Regulations regarding “substantial equivalency” of yeshiva education to that offered in public schools was handed down today. While the decision does not entirely invalidate the Regulations, as hoped, Judge Christina Ryba, of the Supreme Court of New York, did strike down key portions of the Regulations, in a way that provides important protections for Orthodox Jewish education in New York.
For those of us that care about the quality of the education provided by religious schools for our young, this is good news.
Recall that Agudah sent out an email entitled "Save Yeshiva Education" on May 17, 2022. Similar emails were sent on May 23 titled "Did you comment yet?" and May 26 titled "Time is Running Out! Please Act Now". These emails contained a call to action to oppose New Regulations, similar to what occurred 2 years earlier when 140,000 comments were submitted.
That did not yield the results hoped for. New regulations fell short of their goal. Agudah then filed a lawsuit against the state. The purpose of which was to invalidate the New York State Education Department's substantial equivalency regulations. That would have allowed certain Chasidic schools to continue their policy of refusing to teach any Limudei Chol (secular subjects) to their students without consequence.
In their zeal to accomplish that that goal, Agudah had asked Orthodox Jewry to once again bombard the court with their comments in support of their lawsuit. Characterizing the state regulations as an assault on Jewish education itself. (Which in my view is nonsense.)
Nonetheless Agudah succeeded in generating approximately 350,000 public comments in support of their lawsuit.
As relevant here, Education Law $ 3233 provides that "a violation of [the Compulsory Education Law] shall be punishable for the first offense by a fine not exceeding ten dollars or ten days' imprisonment; for each subsequent offense by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment."
Perhaps Yeshivas should focus their on a sustainable negotiations that ensure that "children are not left in ignorance, that from some source they will receive instruction that will fit them for their place in society". After all, this is the purpose of the Compulsory Education Law.
What this means is that parents that do send to schools that do not comply will have to essentially home school their children with a curriculum that follow state regulations. .And submit a plan to that effect. Not doing so will make them subject to actual jail time.
This should be considered a victory for Chasidic children that have heretofore been denied any formal education in Limidei Chol. My hope is that Chasidic leaders will now see the folly in their polices of the past. And that the will do what just about every other Orthodox Jewish school does and begin to offer a Limudei Chol curriculum.
If they do that.. problem solved. All the angst over government overreach will quiet down. Fears about a slippery slope that would end up with a government insisting that cultural values be taught that contradict religious values curriculum will not happen. None of the schools that have been in compliance were ever required to teach values that were against their religious principles. Nor is there ay intent to do so now. All the state wants - and has a right to insist upon - is that all schools provide an education in the basics. Sometimes called the 3 Rs.
It is not enough to say that Chasidim educated without any Limudei Chol nevertheless, do quite well financially as a community. Being educated is more than about making money. It is about good citizenship and having a basic education. Being literate is not a violation of Chukas HaGoy. Nor is it Chukas HaGoy to know some basic science and math
Their day schools and Yeshiva high schools will hopefully now offer what most of the rest of Orthodox schools have been offering for decades. An education in both Limudei Kodesh and Limdei Chol. Had they done this to begin with, none of this would have happened.
*HT: a Charedi freind who contributed to the content of this post.