By: Jeff Cormath
A comprehensive four-year review by the New York City Board of Education has found that at least 26 yeshivas fall below educational standards.
In fact, only two of 28 ultra-Orthodox yeshivas New York City that were scrutinized actually met city standards for teaching secular subjects, according to officials.
The Department of Education “took more than four years to release its analysis, which was hobbled by investigators’ difficulties entering some schools, bureaucratic delays and other problems,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “In five yeshivas, the department found no evidence of relevant curriculum in English or math. In 12 schools, inspectors didn’t see required instruction consistently in all grades and subject areas. Other schools didn’t hit targets, but fared better and appeared to be making more of an effort to meet state expectations that private schools provide education substantially equivalent to that required in public schools.”
Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza explained that department investigators had visited 138 first-through-12th grade classrooms in the yeshivas over the last few years. “He said that nine of those schools are moving closer to the goal of providing sufficient secular studies. The department found that another 12 schools are “developing” their secular education, while another five schools barely have secular studies,” according to the New York Times.
The high school yeshivas “presented a particularly worrying trend: City officials found little to no evidence of secular education at two of the three yeshiva high schools they visited,” the Times added.
It is a problem that yeshivas have myopically brought on themselves. According to a report last summer by JTA, Orthodox yeshivas, Catholic schools and elite private schools in New York “are coming together to oppose a government initiative that would more clearly define what they are required to teach. The proposal, a set of regulations from the state Department of Education, aims to ensure that private schools provide instruction that is at least as good as the education in public schools. The schools say the regulations are unnecessary and threaten their autonomy. Advocates of the proposal point to complaints by some graduates of Orthodox yeshivas who say they received scant secular education and, as a result, were unable to support themselves financially.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio “was aware that members of his staff had made this commitment or offer to delay and he was aware of that at a time that he personally participated in the last round of vote whipping or lobbying to get the required votes to extend mayoral control of the schools,” Department of Investigations Commissioner Margaret Garnett told CBS News. “Delays in the actual inquiry were primarily due to “it found it difficult to enter and go into the yeshivas.” It took two years for DOE officials to gain access and there were “prolonged disputes with the yeshivas’ attorney in obtaining curriculum information.”
