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FILE — N.Y. State Sen. Simcha Felder during a budget hearing in Albany, Jan. 30, 2017. (Nathaniel Brooks/The New York Times)
FILE — N.Y. State Sen. Simcha Felder during a budget hearing in Albany, Jan. 30, 2017. (Nathaniel Brooks/The New York Times)
Photo: NATHANIEL BROOKS
Sen. John DeFrancisco leaves Majority Leader John Flanagan's office on Friday morning, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Sen. John DeFrancisco leaves Majority Leader John Flanagan's office on Friday morning, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron, Albany Times Union
Speaker Carl Heastie gets ready to start a budget press briefing on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Speaker Carl Heastie gets ready to start a budget press briefing on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron, Albany Times Union
Speaker Carl Heastie holds a budget press briefing on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Speaker Carl Heastie holds a budget press briefing on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron, Albany Times Union
Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, right, leaves the Hall of Governors after meeting with Gov. Andrew Cuomo for budget talks on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
lessSenate Majority Leader John Flanagan, right, leaves the Hall of Governors after meeting with Gov. Andrew Cuomo for budget talks on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times
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Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, right, and Sen. Andrew Lanza, center, walk through the Hall of Governors on their way to meet with Gov. Andrew Cuomo for budget talks on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
lessSenate Majority Leader John Flanagan, right, and Sen. Andrew Lanza, center, walk through the Hall of Governors on their way to meet with Gov. Andrew Cuomo for budget talks on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the
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Assemblymember Patricia Fahy tries to listen in on a budget press briefing held by Speaker Carl Heastie on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Assemblymember Patricia Fahy tries to listen in on a budget press briefing held by Speaker Carl Heastie on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron, Albany Times Union
Assemblymember Patricia Fahy, right, talks to Assemblymember Bill Magnarelli, left, following a budget press briefing held by Speaker Carl Heastie on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
lessAssemblymember Patricia Fahy, right, talks to Assemblymember Bill Magnarelli, left, following a budget press briefing held by Speaker Carl Heastie on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y.
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Speaker Carl Heastie holds a budget press briefing on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Speaker Carl Heastie holds a budget press briefing on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron, Albany Times Union
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, talks with Sen. Andrew Lanza, R-Staten Island, and Louann Ciccone Program and Policy Secretary for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie as they leave his office after a budget meeting at the state Capitol Thursday, March 29, 2018, in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)
lessNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, talks with Sen. Andrew Lanza, R-Staten Island, and Louann Ciccone Program and Policy Secretary for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie as they leave his office after a budget
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Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan leaves Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office as the respective leaders met for budget talks on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan leaves Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office as the respective leaders met for budget talks on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron, Albany Times Union
Assemblymember Patricia Fahy talks to Assemblymember Bill Magnarelli, not shown, following a budget press briefing held by Speaker Carl Heastie on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
lessAssemblymember Patricia Fahy talks to Assemblymember Bill Magnarelli, not shown, following a budget press briefing held by Speaker Carl Heastie on Friday, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will
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Assemblyman John T. McDonald III speaks on the phone while seated in the Assembly Chamber on Friday morning, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Assemblyman John T. McDonald III speaks on the phone while seated in the Assembly Chamber on Friday morning, March 30, 2018, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)
Photo: Will Waldron, Albany Times Union
Yeshivas emerge as last minute budget issue
Albany
The major holdup to completion of the 2018-19 budget centered on one senator who was focused on one specific and narrow issue. And while lawmakers ultimately resolved the issue, broader questions about the education youngsters are getting in Yeshivas and other religious schools won’t likely be resolved anytime soon.
Brooklyn Sen. Simcha Felder is a pivotal lawmaker. A Democrat who caucuses with Republicans in the closely contested Senate, he’s viewed as a sometimes-needed 32nd vote to pass legislation in the 63-seat chamber. As a result, he was able to hold up budget talks with his insistence on a moratorium on updated regulations regarding Yeshivas, or Orthodox elementary and secondary schools, which in recent years have proliferated in Brooklyn as well as Rockland County.
Questions about Yeshiva education have come to the forefront in recent years, especially with the rise of a new group, Young Advocates for Fair Education, or YAFFED.
Led by Naftuli Moster, a Yeshiva graduate who lives Rockland, the group has criticized these schools for teaching biblical studies to the exclusion of basic subjects such as English, math and science.
Longstanding state education regulations and guidelines, dating to the 1920s, say that private religious schools, whether they are Yeshivas or fundamentalist Christian academies, have to provide an education that is “substantially equivalent” to that given in public schools.
Historically, policing the requirement has been left to local school boards and superintendents.
Knowing that, Moster and others have for several years been pushing the New York City Department of Education to examine whether these schools meet the requirement.
But critics like Moster say New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has dragged his feet on this for fear of angering the city’s Orthodox constituency, which makes up a solid voting bloc, and whose members have supported the mayor.
Against that backdrop the state Education Department, led by Commissioner MaryEllen Elia has for more than a year been working to update the guidelines on what religious schools should do in order to offer a “substantially equivalent” education.
“This is still a work in progress,” state Education Department spokeswoman Emily DeSantis said in a prepared statement.
A lot of the dispute is said to center on the math and science as well as English requirements in Yeshiva schools.
Laura Dawn Barbieri, special counsel for the Advocates for Justice public interest law firm, said she’s spoken to some Yeshiva graduates who couldn’t explain what a continent was.
Many, she said, get regular schooling up to the age of 13, after which they devote the rest of their classroom time to studying the Torah, the five books of the Hebrew bible, often known as the Old Testament.
“You would stop learning history mathematics and geography,” she said.
Barbieri in 2015 represented seven Rockland County parents who sued state, the East Ramapo school district and four yeshivas, contending they didn’t offer enough secular coursework.
The suit was later dropped, since the plaintiffs didn’t want to go public for fear or being ostracized, Barbieri said.
There are other legal issues surrounding religious schools.
Past Court of Appeals rulings, for instance, have held that all schools, public and private, are supposed to provide graduates the ability to vote and serve on a jury, which judges said were civic duties.
Failure to do so could prompt litigation, said Michael Rebell, a Columbia University professor and lawyer who has sued the state over adequate school funding.
Part of the problem comes down to a time management question – centering on how many hours Yiddish-speaking Yeshiva students spend on, say English grammar, or algebra compared to Torah study during the course of the day.
rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU
