Latest news with #BettyRosa
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NY lawmakers may weaken, stall tougher educational requirements for yeshivas
NEW YORK — New York lawmakers are brokering a deal that would delay and weaken educational requirements for religious schools — a major setback for yeshiva reform advocates who believe all students should receive some secular instruction, The New York Daily News has learned. The plan is to include the changes in the next state budget, which is in its final stages of completion and more than a month late, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. On Thursday, the state education commissioner, Betty Rosa, called the last-minute effort a 'travesty' for students during an interview with The New York Times. 'It's gutting this whole mechanism that exists for compliance and caring if kids are able to get a basic education,' said Adina Mermelstein Konikoff, executive director of the group Young Advocates for Fair Education. The New York State Education Department passed regulations in 2022 related to government oversight of private schools. The schools were given multiple ways to show how they were complying with a century-old state law, which requires private schools provide secular instruction at least 'substantially equivalent' to that offered at a public school. The vast majority of private schools, including most yeshivas, are following the law. But the years-long fight came to a head this year when the agency moved to revoke funding from six ultra-Orthodox schools in Brooklyn, seemingly not cooperating with regulators — the initial cohort of which was first reported by the Daily News. The agency's Board of Regents is expected to take up the topic at its monthly meeting on Monday. With the final details of any possible deal still under wraps, some proposals have included extending the deadline for schools to comply with the regulations by as long as eight years, sources said. Others add potentially less rigorous assessments for schools to demonstrate compliance, or allow those with older grades to skip a test entirely if they meet requirements in younger grades, though one source had not heard those specifics. The most sweeping changes, which have been called for by the Legislature's Republican leadership, would involve repealing the regulations in the name of parental rights in education and respecting the autonomy of religious schools. 'I have a general rule after 23 years in Albany,' said state Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat and chair of the finance committee. 'If someone comes along at the last second and tries to stuff something into budget negotiations — where there's been nothing in writing, no opportunity for public review or expert review, and you're being told, 'we've got to do this to get the budget done' — whatever that proposal is, it smells to high heaven, and you should run the other way.' Sources said there appeared to be more enthusiasm for changes in the Assembly than the Senate. The governor's office did not return a request for comment on Friday afternoon. There is speculation Gov. Kathy Hochul could have her own reelection prospects in mind as gubernatorial candidates start to vie for a powerful Hasidic voting bloc. 'It's three-dimensional chess — with the yeshivas as just a pawn,' said David Bloomfield, a professor of education leadership, law, and policy at Brooklyn College and The CUNY Graduate Center.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NY lawmakers may weaken, stall tougher educational requirements for yeshivas
NEW YORK — New York lawmakers are brokering a deal that would delay and weaken educational requirements for religious schools — a major setback for yeshiva reform advocates who believe all students should receive some secular instruction, The New York Daily News has learned. The plan is to include the changes in the next state budget, which is in its final stages of completion and more than a month late, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. On Thursday, the state education commissioner, Betty Rosa, called the last-minute effort a 'travesty' for students during an interview with The New York Times. 'It's gutting this whole mechanism that exists for compliance and caring if kids are able to get a basic education,' said Adina Mermelstein Konikoff, executive director of the group Young Advocates for Fair Education. The New York State Education Department passed regulations in 2022 related to government oversight of private schools. The schools were given multiple ways to show how they were complying with a century-old state law, which requires private schools provide secular instruction at least 'substantially equivalent' to that offered at a public school. The vast majority of private schools, including most yeshivas, are following the law. But the years-long fight came to a head this year when the agency moved to revoke funding from six ultra-Orthodox schools in Brooklyn, seemingly not cooperating with regulators — the initial cohort of which was first reported by the Daily News. The agency's Board of Regents is expected to take up the topic at its monthly meeting on Monday. With the final details of any possible deal still under wraps, some proposals have included extending the deadline for schools to comply with the regulations by as long as eight years, sources said. Others add potentially less rigorous assessments for schools to demonstrate compliance, or allow those with older grades to skip a test entirely if they meet requirements in younger grades, though one source had not heard those specifics. The most sweeping changes, which have been called for by the Legislature's Republican leadership, would involve repealing the regulations in the name of parental rights in education and respecting the autonomy of religious schools. 'I have a general rule after 23 years in Albany,' said state Sen. Liz Krueger, a Democrat and chair of the finance committee. 'If someone comes along at the last second and tries to stuff something into budget negotiations — where there's been nothing in writing, no opportunity for public review or expert review, and you're being told, 'we've got to do this to get the budget done' — whatever that proposal is, it smells to high heaven, and you should run the other way.' Sources said there appeared to be more enthusiasm for changes in the Assembly than the Senate. The governor's office did not return a request for comment on Friday afternoon. There is speculation Gov. Kathy Hochul could have her own reelection prospects in mind as gubernatorial candidates start to vie for a powerful Hasidic voting bloc. 'It's three-dimensional chess — with the yeshivas as just a pawn,' said David Bloomfield, a professor of education leadership, law, and policy at Brooklyn College and The CUNY Graduate Center.
New York Times
01-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
New York May Weaken Its Oversight Over Religious Schools
New York lawmakers are considering a deal that would dramatically weaken their oversight over religious schools, potentially a major victory for the state's Hasidic Jewish community. The proposal, which could become part of a state budget deal, has raised profound concern among education experts, including the state education commissioner, Betty Rosa, who said in an interview that such changes amount to a 'travesty' for children who attend religious schools that do not offer a basic secular education. 'We would be truly compromising the future of these young people,' by weakening the law, Ms. Rosa said. 'As the architect of education in this system, how could I possibly support that decision,' she added. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday announced a $254 billion budget agreement but acknowledged many of the particulars are still being hashed out. Behind the scenes, a major sticking point appears to be whether the governor and the Legislature will agree to the changes on private school oversight, according to several people with direct knowledge of the negotiations, which may include a delay in any potential consequences for private schools that receive enormous sums of taxpayer dollars but sometimes flout state education law by not offering basic education in English or math. The state is also considering lowering the standards that a school would have to meet in order to demonstrate that it is following the law. Though the potential changes in state education law would technically apply to all private schools, they are chiefly relevant to Hasidic schools, which largely conduct religious lessons in Yiddish and Hebrew in their all-boys schools, known as yeshivas. The potential deal is the result of years of lobbying by Hasidic leaders and their political representatives. Legislative leaders acknowledged that changes to the educational standard were being considered but declined to provide any additional detail. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Senate majority leader, said on Tuesday that conversations on the topic were 'ongoing' and that she was unsure what would be in the final budget legislation. A spokesman for Governor Hochul declined to comment. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said that an outline of a deal was 'on the table' when asked about it earlier this week. The effort has been led by Simcha Felder, who recently represented a swath of Brooklyn in the State Senate before being elected to the City Council, and Simcha Eichenstein, who represents a similar area in the Assembly. The Hasidic community has long seen government oversight of their schools as an existential threat, and it has emerged as their top political issue in recent years. It has taken on fresh urgency in recent months, as the state education department, led by Ms. Rosa, has moved for the first time to enforce the law, after years of deliberation and delay. The department has announced plans to close six Hasidic yeshivas it has said are not complying with the state law, in some cases because the schools refused to meet with state education officials to discuss improvement plans. That move, by far the strongest action New York has taken to crack down on schools it says are breaking the law, amounts a worst-case scenario for Hasidic leaders. There is little dispute, even among Hasidic leaders, that many yeshivas across the lower Hudson Valley and parts of Brooklyn are failing to provide an adequate secular education. Some religious leaders have boasted about their refusal to comply with the law and have barred families from having English books in their homes. Mayor Eric Adams's administration, which has been closely aligned with the Hasidic community, found in 2023 that 18 Brooklyn yeshivas were not complying with state law, a finding that was backed up by state education officials. A 2022 New York Times investigation found that scores of all-boys yeshivas collected about $1 billion in government funding over a four-year period but failed to provide a basic education, and that teachers in some of the schools used corporal punishment. It is clear why Hasidic leaders, who are deeply skeptical of any government oversight, would want to weaken and delay consequences for the schools they help run. It is less obvious why elected officials would concede to those demands during this particular budget season. There is widespread speculation in Albany that Ms. Hochul, facing what may be a tough re-election fight next year, is hoping to curry favor from Hasidic officials, who could improve her chances with an endorsement. The Hasidic community tends to vote as a bloc in order to influence low-turnout local elections, and some legislators have suggested that religious leaders might endorse specific candidates if their allies in the Legislature agreed to weaken the law. Hasidic voters are increasingly conservative and tend to favor Republicans in general election contests. That could benefit Ms. Hochul's potential Republican challengers in next year's race, Representative Mike Lawler, who is strongly allied with the Hasidic community that makes up a considerable portion of his Hudson Valley district, and Representative Elise Stefanik, a key Trump ally, even if Ms. Hochul offers a concession on yeshivas. A potential Democratic challenger, Representative Ritchie Torres of the Bronx, has made an aggressive effort to court Jewish voters. As the budget negotiations have reached their final, frenzied phase, some members have raised concerns about the education law change that their leadership is pressuring them to accept, and said they have not yet seen these proposals in bill form. News of the potential deal reached Michael A. Rebell, a prominent education lawyer, who wrote in an email to one of the governor's top education officials earlier this week that he would consider suing the state if the law was weakened. 'If this secret, behind-the-scenes deal is, in fact, accepted by the governor, we are going to have to challenge it publicly,' Mr. Rebell wrote in the email, obtained by The Times. 'And we will also consider bringing a constitutional litigation to oppose it.' New York's state education law related to private schools, which is known as the substantial equivalency law, has been on the books for more than a century. It was an obscure, uncontroversial rule up until a few years ago, when graduates of Hasidic yeshivas who said they were denied a basic education filed a complaint with the state, claiming that their education left them unprepared to navigate the secular world and find decent jobs.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NY State Education Department won't sign Trump administration's anti-DEI certification — risking federal funds
NEW YORK — The New York State Education Department announced Friday it will not sign a certification against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices as directed by the Trump administration — at the risk of losing federal funding. A letter sent the day before by the U.S. Department of Education gave state commissioners 10 days to sign and return the formal affirmation. Insisting New York has attested to following federal law, a spokesman for state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said, 'No further certification will be forthcoming.' 'The New York State Education Department has consistently certified, on multiple occasions, that it does and will comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,' spokesman J.P. O'Hare said in a statement. 'Given the fact that USDOE is already in possession of the guarantees by NYSED, no further certification will be forthcoming. The Board of Regents and State Education Department continue to work with New York's schools to increase equity, access and opportunities in education for all New York State students.' The federal government's directive on Thursday was the latest escalation against DEI programming in schools. Over the last couple of months, the U.S. Education Department has set deadlines, launched investigations and threatened to cancel funds. During President Trump's first month in office, the U.S. Education Department opened a probe into the Ithaca City School District over an annual student conference from which white children were reportedly excluded. 'Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,' Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Education Department, said in the announcement. He accused schools of 'using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.' Previous federal action to ban DEI is currently being challenged in court. State Attorney General Letitia James has also advised New York school districts and higher education institutions not to back away from their commitments to diversity. New York City public schools receive about $2 billion in federal funding that could be on the line if they are found to be out of compliance. 'Diversity is a superpower here in New York City,' New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said after an unrelated press conference Thursday in East Harlem. 'We are always going to honor that. We are always going to make sure that we are serving every single child and family in New York City.' _____
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NYS Ed Dept. won't sign Trump admin anti-DEI certification — risking federal funds
The New York State Education Department announced Friday it will not sign a certification against diversity, equity and inclusion practices as directed by the Trump administration — at the risk of losing federal funding. A letter sent the day before by the U.S. Department of Education gave state commissioners 10 days to sign and return the formal affirmation. Insisting New York has attested to following federal law, a spokesman for state Education Commissioner Betty Rosa said, 'No further certification will be forthcoming.' 'The New York State Education Department has consistently certified, on multiple occasions, that it does and will comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,' spokesman J.P. O'Hare said in a statement. 'Given the fact that USDOE is already in possession of the guarantees by NYSED, no further certification will be forthcoming. The Board of Regents and State Education Department continue to work with New York's schools to increase equity, access and opportunities in education for all New York State students.' The federal government's directive on Thursday was the latest escalation against DEI programming in schools. Over the last couple of months, the U.S. Education Department has set deadlines, launched investigations and threatened to cancel funds. During President Trump's first month in office, the U.S. Education Department opened a probe into the Ithaca City School District over an annual student conference from which white children were reportedly excluded. 'Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,' Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Education Department, said in the announcement. He accused schools of 'using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.' Previous federal action to ban DEI is currently being challenged in court. State Attorney General Letitia James has also advised New York school districts and higher education institutions not to back away from their commitments to diversity. New York City public schools receive about $2 billion in federal funding that could be on the line if they are found to be out of compliance. 'Diversity is a superpower here in New York City,' New York City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said after an unrelated press conference Thursday in East Harlem. 'We are always going to honor that. We are always going to make sure that we are serving every single child and family in New York City.'
