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NYT Claims NYC Yeshivas & Private Companies Bilking Govt for Funding of Special Ed Programs 

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Edited by: TJVNews.com

It appears that the New York Times has decided to end the year 2022 with the kind of coverage that appeals to them most. And that, of course, is scrutinizing and lambasting Orthodox Jews and Chassidic communities in particular.

Earlier this year, the Jewish Voice ran a cover story entitled “Backlash is Swift After NYT “Hit Job” on Yeshiva Educational Standards” which essentially reported on the Times investigative piece written by    Eliza Shapiro and Brian Rosenthal.

For several years now, the New York Times has taken it upon itself to research the Chassidic yeshivas in New York, writing about how the schools are “failing by design”.  The Times has taken a handful of Hasidic schools as a sample, faulting the private schools overall for minimal time invested in secular studies. In their disparaging article Shapiro and Rosenthal state that the schools dedicate the majority of the day to religious studies, erroneously claiming this leaves the students ill equipped to find jobs and excel in society.

The Times also alleged that students are being “trapped” into dependency and joblessness, despite the fact that the government has endowed the schools with generous taxpayer funding.  The article says that the Chassidic boys schools collected roughly $1 billion in the past four years.  Even the Times conceded that that “the schools receive far less taxpayer money per pupil than public schools do”.

The article concluded that “students grow up and can barely support their own families”.  Still, as per the US Census Bureau data conducted this decade, the city’s greatest concentration of unemployment is by no means in Chassidic neighborhoods of New York City. Rather, such unemployment rates exist in districts 14, 15, 16, and 17 in the south and central West Bronx, and District 10 in northern Manhattan.

Now, the Times has reported that Chassidic schools are enjoying a windfall of government money that is earmarked for the needs of students who qualify as needing special education due to a variety of mental and physical disabilities.

State law requires cities to deliver those services to students in private schools, even if the government has to pay outside companies to do it, as was reported by the Times.  This essentially means that since yeshivas are considered private schools, private companies have arisen to assist with the education of those students with special needs. The Times erroneously claims that a racket, of sorts, exists and that the private companies working with special needs Chassidic kids are ripping off the government by working in tandem with the yeshivas to send as many kids (whether or not they are really special needs kids or not) to their companies so that they can see tremendous financial profits.

In turn, the Times says that the private companies offer exceptionally large donations to the struggling yeshivas. They outline a quid pro quo that says that the yeshivas will continue to receive the large donations and in return the yeshiva will send just about any kid to their company with alleged documentation that the kid does indeed qualify for a special educational curriculum. In that way, the Times infers that this sweetheart benefits everyone concerned. The yeshivas receive and rely on the hefty donations from the private companies that provide special education and the private companies rack up the lucrative profits with an excess of kids who will attend their programs, even if they are most definitely not mentally or physically challenged.

The Times claims that dozens of schools in the Orthodox community have pushed parents to get their children diagnosed with disabilities. At least two schools have sent out mass emails urging families to apply for aid. A third school provided parents with a sample prescription to give their children’s doctors, saying a diagnosis would bring more resources for the school.

The report also claims that higher percentages of yeshiva students are classified as needing special education than at other public and private schools in New York City,

The Times wrote that at 25 of the city’s approximately 160 Hasidic yeshivas, more than half of the students are classified as needing special education. Records show the classifications are routinely justified by citing the students’ struggles with English.

Across all city schools, one in five students is classified as having a disability. There is little research into whether disabilities occur more frequently in the Hasidic community than in others, the Times reported.

  1. Erik Connolly, a Chicago lawyer who represents some schools and companies told the Times, “Implying that the portion not paid to the providers is used only to fatten pocketbooks is unfair, misleading and defamatory. These rates are offered to and utilized by students of all nationalities, religious affiliations and ethnic backgrounds.”

Over the past decade, state auditors have discovered misallocation of funds by scores of New York preschool special education providers, including seven companies that serve yeshivas, the Times reported. Among them was Yeled v’Yalda, which was told to repay $2.9 million after being accused of misallocation in 2015. Some funding was used to run a community gym, the auditors found.

A decades-old nonprofit, Yeled v’Yalda has donated more than $2.5 million to 27 yeshivas since 2014, tax filings show, according to the Times report.

Connolly, who also represents Yeled v’Yalda, said the organization “has served thousands of disabled students and their families for over 40 years with great success.”

He disputed parts of the 2015 audit and added that the company charges the standard government rate for the vast majority of services, the Times reported.  He said any school referring students to Yeled v’Yalda did so because of its reputation, not the money it donated. The organization, he said, “does not engage in disreputable or quid pro quo donations.”

According to a statement issued Thursday by the Agudath Israel of America which is the largest and most influential advocacy organization for Torah Jewry in the country, the group said of the Times report,  “Another week, another front-page attack on Orthodox Jews – this time targeting children with special needs and their families. The New York Times confirms, for the 13th time in just three and half months, its obsession with spreading misinformation and demonizing Orthodox and Hasidic Jews.

 

At the same time, anti-Semitic attacks specifically targeting the visibly Jewish in New York City – the ones targeted by the New York Times – have risen exponentially. Why is the New York Times using its enormous megaphone to spread hate and misinformation? “

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