New York – East Ramapo Monitor Bill Passes Assembly Education Committee

    5

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    Albany, NY – The New York State Assembly Education Committee has approved a controversial bill which would appoint a fiscal monitor to oversee the East Ramapo school board and develop a five-year improvement plan for the district, Lohud.com reports (http://lohud.us/1FTGry2). The bill had strong support in the Democratic-controlled committee, but Assembly Republicans, as well as Democrats Walter Mosley and Sheldon Silver voted against the bill.

    Not all Assembly Democrats welcomed the news, however. In a statement decrying the committee’s decision, Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind said, “The East Ramapo Monitor Bill establishes a very dangerous precedent. A monitor who has the ability to overturn decisions made by a duly elected board is clearly unfair. If an appointed monitor can make decisions for the East Ramapo school district, then other appointed monitors can do the same in other districts. Where does it end? There will be no point in even electing a school board anymore—those elected members will become a board of advisors as the appointed monitor becomes the czar.” Hikind praised his colleagues, Assemblymen Mosley and Silver for “doing the right thing and voting against this destructive bill.”

    In a joint opinion piece published in today’s New York Times (http://nyti.ms/1Idcnyg), New York State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch and Education Law Center Executive Director David G. Sciarra pushed for the passage of the bill and disputed the notion that the installation of a monitor over the largely Orthodox Jewish school board was anti-Semitic, saying, “Nothing could be further from the truth. The legislation is not about punishing one group because of its religious beliefs; it is about acting to make sure that the civil rights of a community of overwhelmingly low-income minority children are not denied and that their sound constitutional right to a sound basic education is enforced.”

    The measure now moves to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee where it will be voted on before being sent to the floor for a full vote. State Senate Republicans have not yet indicated whether they will support the bill. The legislative session concludes on June 17.


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    5 Comments
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    lavrenty
    Member
    lavrenty
    8 years ago

    I hope this bill, passes we cant be on one hand calling members of the Assembly anti-Semites since they dont support OUR stuff 100% and then calling other members anti-Semites because they support THEIR stuff, Hikind seems confused as to where his district is, (its in Boro Park and its not in Gush Katif).

    cbdds
    cbdds
    8 years ago

    I live elsewhere but need to put my two cwnts in.
    This smacks of anti-jewish sentiment. When an official can say “Nothing could be further from the truth. The legislation is not about punishing one group because of its religious beliefs; it is about acting to make sure that the civil rights of a community of overwhelmingly low-income minority children are not denied and that their sound constitutional right to a sound basic education is enforced.” there is an issue. They, the writers act as if jews can not be trusted to do their job fairly yet when an african american is elected that question never comes up.

    8 years ago

    Millions of dollars are missing and none of the frum board have college degrees, most don’t even have a GED. The Feds are getting involved and when everything is exposed, I hope no one cries antisemitism again. Why shouldn’t these kids be allowed to have art, music, sports and foreign languages or even full day kindergarten, yet the yeshivas get unlimited resources and no one in New Square pays a dime in taxes.

    InsideOne
    InsideOne
    8 years ago

    The NY Assembly does something logical for a change – nice! It’s a no-brainer that grown-ups need to step in and unravel the mess that these idiot board members have created.

    Being against people who don’t know what they’re doing, and rob public assets to enrich private institutions is not anti-semitic, it’s simply being against looting of public funds.

    I guess back in the days of Sodom, someone trying to intervene would have been labeled an anti-Sodomite…