OPINION: Queens elected officials must stand up for secular education in ultra-Orthodox yeshivas

Naftuli Moster is the executive director of Young Advocates for Fair Education, or YAFFED. Photo courtesy of YAFFED

By Naftuli Moster

Imagine hearing the word “molecule” for the very first time in a college-level biology class, or having such limited math skills that it's difficult to balance a personal budget. As a product of the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva school system, I faced these challenges and more. Sadly, tens of thousands of children in our city continue to be robbed of the basic education to which they are entitled under the law and which they need to succeed in today’s society. 

As a much-delayed 2019 New York City Department of Education inquiry showed, many yeshiva students are not learning English, math, history, science or other secular subjects — 26 out of the 28 schools in the investigation failed to meet the basic standards for secular education. The investigation, which was delayed due to the political influence of certain special interest groups, only confirmed what advocates have known all along — that non-public schools, in particular ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, are not being held to the standards that require a “substantially equivalent” education to what students receive in public schools.

State elected officials representing Queens have an opportunity to protect countless young people, to prove that educational equity isn’t just rhetoric, and to show that special interests are not more important that our children by ensuring the New York State Board of Regents approves, and the State Education Department adopts, proposed Substantial Equivalency Regulations before they expire on October 5. 

Once adopted, these regulations will go a long way towards empowering local and state officials to fully enforce the substantial equivalency standards, including utilizing measures such as school visits and restricting funding when schools fail to cooperate. The regulations would also ensure prompt corrective action if requirements are not met. 

If our elected officials and the Regents let the proposed Substantial Equivalency Regulations expire, they are sacrificing the basic secular education — and the futures — of tens of thousands of children. If they expire, the process of proposing and adopting these rules will have to start from the beginning. We cannot afford to let yet another school year go by with students being denied a basic education. 

Given the results of the investigation into ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, our New York State elected officials and the Board of Regents cannot claim ignorance about the need for stronger substantial equivalency enforcement and regulations. Students in the ultra-Orthodox community have waited long enough to get the basic education to which they are entitled under the law and which they need to succeed.

 Naftuli Moster is the executive director of Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED).