New York – Three months after the New York State Education Department announced new regulations that would require all nonpublic schools to drastically increase the amount of secular education provided to students or face serious consequences, high ranking state officials have been slapped with a lawsuit charging them with overstepping their legal boundaries and violating the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of religion.
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Board of Regents chancellor Betty Rosa and SED commissioner Maryellen Elia found themselves in the crosshairs of the 50 page lawsuit filed on Thursday in State Supreme Court in Albany.
The suit was brought by Agudath Israel of America, Torah Umesorah, Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools, several parents, and five yeshivos that have all been operating continuously in New York City for over a century – Mesivta Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem, Rabbi Jacob Joseph School and Yeshiva Ch’san Sofer.
The lawsuit challenged the state’s authority to issue regulations that would define substantial equivalency and slammed the SED for releasing the new guidelines without following proper procedure as defined in state law.
It categorized the new requirements as rigid, noting that state courts have upheld private schools’ right to create flexible curriculums that can vary from district to district and criticized the state’s decision to empower local public school districts to evaluate private school performance and compliance as “an abuse of discretion.”
The lawsuit also charged the state with violating parents’ constitutionally guaranteed right to provide their children with a religious education and requested a stay that would prevent the SED from implementing the new rules while the case is being heard.
A formal injunction detailing serious questions regarding the guidelines’ legality is expected to be filed next week, said Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America.
“We think that the SED acted beyond the scope of its authority and are hoping that the courts will tell them that they can’t do that,” Rabbi Zwiebel, told VIN News.
The lawsuit is the second to be brought against the state this week, reported the Wall Street Journal (https://on.wsj.com/2SQDsBa). The New York State Association of Independent Schools filed a similar lawsuit seeking to dissolve the new guidelines on Tuesday on behalf of its 196 member schools, which include multiple elite New York City academic institutions.
“At the core of our independence is our ability to create our curriculum,” said Mark Lauria, executive director of the NYSAIS. “This cute to the core of what our schools do.”
As previously reported on VIN News (http://bit.ly/2XMV8Sb), Catholic schools were the first to publicly decry the new guidelines, announing their intention to boycott the regulations last December.
“The parents who choose our schools can have great confidence in the academic rigor of our schools,” said James Cultara, executive secretary of the Council of Catholic School Superintendents which represents approximately 500 schools.
“We simply cannot accept a competing school having authority over whether our schools can operate.”
Anyone who thinks this is just about teaching us key STEM courses is naive. Just look at the HS regents curricula
US History, now has an essay on the marriage equality act.
Biology regents have question on reproduction. And its not like when i was in HS where the question was more how the fetus grows in the mom stomach. its more focused on how to “do it” safely.
Earth science has evolution.
Naftali Moster, I have a high suspicion that you read VIN comments as you are addicted to social media and public opinion. Your agenda is not simply to provide yidden with tools they need to succeed. Your agenda is to uproot our torah. Your agenda has no place in judiasm and its shmad. Pleast=e keep your nose out of this business and go hang your self. Haman needs company you rasha
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Moster is a Soros funded wack job, the problem is Aguda supported Cuomo the man behind this evil, plus Aguda has supported sex abusers in the past.
Educated Archy: I could not have put it better myself.
It’s a tough call. I really do feel many of these Yeshivas shortchange the talmidim, many of whom don’t speak unaccented proper English and have no background in fundamental things everyone else knows. On the other hand, letting the state in is an issue. Also, the yeshivas often skirt around standards that they agreed to abide by and many of their teachers aren’t trained. The kids who aren’t able to handle the lifestyle, and I’ve met some, don’t usually become Ner Yirael or Yeshiva University types. They leave the fold completely.
Re the “curriculum guidelines” the NYS Dept of Education is trying to force private schools to adopt –
Sometime ago, the BBC reported that the public school system in America has produced 17 million high school graduates who are completely functionally illiterate, meaning 17 million American adults cannot read nor write at all.
? These are the “curriculum guidelines” the State is now seeking to impose on private schools (which have a much better track-record of successfully educating kids) ?
To paraphrase some pertinent advice: [Dept of Education], heal thyself !