Hamodia- (NEW YORK) -New York state will not implement its proposed guidelines on private-school education just yet, but will seek further feedback from the private-school community, after receiving massive opposition to the proposed guidelines, the Board of Regents said Monday.
"Following publication of the guidelines, a 60-day public-comment period commenced, during which private-school advocates, mostly from the yeshivah community, submitted over 140,000 comments opposing the guidelines."
Last July, the New York state Education Department published proposed guidelines for secular-studies instruction in private schools. The guidelines, which provide detailed instructions for how private schools must fulfill the longstanding legal requirement that they provide an education “substantially equivalent” to that provided in public schools, mandate specific courses and the minimum number of hours to be dedicated to the study of each. The time requirements would obligate yeshivos, with a four-day week, to teach an average of more than four hours per day of secular studies in seventh and eighth grades, and an average of more than three hours per day in high school. Among the required subjects are some that yeshiva parents object to.
Following publication of the guidelines, a 60-day public-comment period commenced, during which private-school advocates, mostly from the yeshivah community, submitted over 140,000 comments opposing the guidelines.
The guidelines only become law after a vote by the Board of Regents, but the Board has not yet voted on them at any of its monthly meetings.
At Monday’s meeting, according people present who spoke with Hamodia, Education Commissioner Shannon Tahoe said the Department has never received as many comments on any other issue as it did on these proposed guidelines. The Department recommended that, due to the overwhelming opposition, the Board of Regents not implement the guidelines yet, but go back to the private-school community for further discussion on the subject.
The Board accepted the Department’s recommendation, though Board Chancellor Betty Rosa, considered a proponent of strong oversight over private schools, again expressed her concern with what she views as inadequate secular education provided by some private schools.
Rosa said, according to the people at the meeting who spoke with Hamodia, that while many private schools provide a great education, in some schools students do not graduate with an adequate education, and she reiterated that the Education Department is responsible for education in both public and private schools.
https://hamodia.com/2020/02/10/nys-delaying-education-guidelines-seeks-input-private-schools/
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