Yeshivas across New York City are losing funding from the New York state government as it begins to crack down on educational institutions failing to meet its basic education requirements.
The state government revoked funding for at least five yeshivas last February, most of them located in Brooklyn, while three additional schools, also based in Brooklyn, were notified last March that they would lose their legal status. The State Education Department told parents of students attending these yeshivas to enroll their children in alternative schools on July 1st.
According to a spokesperson for the New York State Education Department, because the schools will lose their legal status, they will no longer receive public funding for meals, transportation, textbooks, or other programs and services after June 30, which is the deadline for all schools in New York State to comply with the government’s secular education mandate.
The crackdown came after years of legislative battles, court disputes, and public debate over the quality and character of education received by tens of thousands of yeshiva students across New York state.
In 2022, the New York Times published a damning investigation, revealing that at least 22 publicly funded yeshivas failed to meet the state’s education standards, leaving students unprepared for life outside of their religious communities.
Yeshivas are traditional Jewish educational institutions mainly focused on studying Jewish religious literature, such as the Talmud and halacha. The State Education Department decided that all children need to learn to speak, read, and write in English and gain at least a basic knowledge of math, science, and social studies. While many yeshivas teach these topics alongside religious instruction, some do not and focus entirely on studying Jewish philosophy and religious texts.
Some of the schools deemed to have violated the state’s education requirements have moved to improve their instruction of secular subjects. However, the education department spokesperson also noted that other schools failed to make changes to their curriculum, despite repeated warnings.
Many yeshivas openly defied the orders of the State Education Department, and see the secular education mandates as an attack on their religious way of life. Some schools are working with lawyers to offer help to parents who will face fines or arrests for refusing to withdraw their children from the yeshivas flagged by the department.
Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools (PEARLS), a group advocating for yeshiva autonomy, is preparing for a legal battle against the State Education Department and has challenged its authority in court. The group also filed a discrimination complaint against state and city education agencies, alleging that the mandates unfairly target religious schools and threaten the yeshivas’ Jewish identity.
While yeshiva education advocates claimed that learning Jewish religious texts, such as the Talmud, requires intensive analysis and critical thinking, critics say that a lack of secular education would force children to remain dependent on Haredi adults and that they are at risk of entering adulthood without basic skills or knowledge.
