Yeshiva reformers are taking Gov. Hochul and New York legislative leaders to court over a contentious deal that waters down state oversight of ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools, the reformers’ attorney announced Thursday.
The amendment, wedged into the state budget during a final stretch of negotiations, put the kibosh on a New York State Education Department compliance program to ensure all private and religious teach core subjects, more or less equivalent to those offered in public schools.
In doing so, a new class action lawsuit in Brooklyn Supreme Court alleges Gov. Hochul, State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins violated students’ rights to a sound, basic education.
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AP From left, New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, New York Gov. Hochul, and State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. (AP)
The Hasidic families are represented by Michael Rebell, the prominent education lawyer in the landmark “Campaign for Fiscal Equity” case that overhauled New York’s school aid formula.
“It is outrageous that the Governor and state legislative leaders have now absolved these schools from teaching basic American history, civics, science and other subjects to tens of thousands of students,” Rebell said. “We are going to court to try to stop them from doing that.”
Representatives for Gov. Hochul and legislative leaders Heastie and Stewart-Cousins did not immediately return requests for comment.
Yeshivas have long been dogged by allegations that some have failed to offer secular instruction on top of their religious studies, as required by law. A New York Times investigation in 2022 found the schools trapped ultra-Orthodox Jewish students in a cycle of joblessness in the modern world and dependency on government programs, such as food stamps.
The new legal claim blasts Hochul and her colleagues in the Legislature for putting the full implementation of the law on hold and making it easier for schools to comply.
Under the revised policy, schools have up to eight years to come into compliance — yet another phase-in period that plaintiffs allege “serves no valid public purpose” other than to benefit a handful of yeshivas previously found to be noncompliant.
The complaint likewise alleges a school can show it’s following the law by “merely administering” certain exams each year — which do not cover history and civics — but do not hold them accountable for student scores.
Rebell is also working with the Youth Advocacy & Policy Lab at Harvard University, and the white-shoe law firm Quinn Emanuel. The lawsuit is being announced with Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED), the main yeshiva reform advocacy group.
“Every child has the right to learn, but too many Hasidic and Haredi children are being denied an education because the state has refused to guarantee it,” said Adina Mermelstein Konikoff, executive director of YAFFED. “This lawsuit is about guaranteeing this right — and that means reversing the disastrous dismantling of substantial equivalency.”
