Advocates for improving secular education in yeshivas are upping the pressure on New York City to release findings from its yearslong investigation into Hasidic schools.
Young Advocates For Fair Education, or YAFFED, filed a formal complaint this month demanding the city Department of Education publicly acknowledge if its investigation has concluded or is ongoing.
“It’s time for the city to come clean on the status of this investigation and to begin enforcing these basic standards in all schools,” said Naftuli Moster, founder and executive director of YAFFED, at a press conference Wednesday.
The complaint was filed July 13 with the New York State Education Department. It demands to see records and remediation plans from the DOE, and also alleges the department’s apparent inaction “harms parents and students of the named schools by depriving them of the ability to make informed decisions with respect to education.”
Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union and State Sen. Robert Jackson were among the leaders to call for more transparency on Wednesday — seven years since YAFFED filed its first complaint alleging dozens of yeshivas failed to offer basic academics.
Earlier this summer, a New York state judge ruled that city and state education agencies must complete their investigations into the yeshivas. The decision came as a number of religious schools have sent 180,000 letters to the education department opposing draft guidelines for increased state oversight into the institutions.
The DOE declined to comment on “ongoing investigations and litigation” — while state education officials said it could not comment on pending appeals that Commissioner Betty Rosa oversees.
And of course the Agudah PR preople will trot out their handful of guys who parents got them extra tutoring and who are now successful and say "See! They got a straight Torah education and they didn't miss out on anything!"
ReplyDeleteNaftuli Moster fails to reveal that he actually has sixteen siblings, most of whom are perfectly satisfied with their own non-secular education. In contrast, Naftuli's parents were both educated in a non-chasidic environment. Naftuli's father is a graduate of Telshe yeshivah of Ohio, and his mother a graduate of Yeshivah of Brooklyn. His mother's sister is a successful physician. Nonetheless, it was Naftuli's parents who decided to give their children a more restrictive education. But for whatever reason that was the decision of Rabbi Feivish Moster and his wife. The school curriculum is not decided upon by the faculty of the yeshivahs, but rather is a function of what the parents want. Had the parents demanded a broader secular curriculum, the yeshivahs would have complied. Ergo, Naftuli's beef ought not to be with the yeshivahs, but with his own parents.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, the entire secular education of Naftuli maternal grandfather, R' Berel Zisman O"H, consisted of the time he spent at Dachau concentration camp. This however, presented no obstacle to him becoming a multi-millionaire in the construction industry. Naftuli could have easily followed in his grandfather's footsteps.
Whatever issues Naftuli Moster might have with his upbringing, it seems that he is more dissatisfied with the restrictive Hallachic lifestyle promoted by yeshivahs, than with the actual lack of economic opportunity available to its graduates.
All of the above are completely factual and easily independently verifiable. I challenge Naftuli Moster to refute any of the statements made here.