蜜桃影视

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A Sept. 11 New York Times expose titled “” prompted the New York State Board of Regents to a scant two days later ordering all private schools to provide students with an education 鈥渆quivalent鈥� to what鈥檚 available in public schools.

New York City has, on paper, been the Orthodox Jewish yeshivas since 2015, amid that students at 26 of the schools failed to pass state reading and math assessments. In 2019, the most recent year when data is available, of students at nine Hasidic boys’ schools tested at grade level, the Times found. Those schools were the only ones in the state with results so low.

It took New York City seven years to admit that it has a problem with the yeshivas, where the public money referred to in the Times headline doesn鈥檛 go to education, but to subsidiary services like buses, free lunch and security, as well as to universal pre-K at some locations. 

Now, how long will it take for city officials to concede that a huge number of the public schools it fully funds, including curriculum, teachers and administration, are posting state test results nearly identical to the ones reported from the yeshivas?

According to an analysis by , in 2017, there were 鈥渆ight community school districts where zero traditional middle schools meet basic standards. 鈥� This means that nearly 73,000 NYC students living in these districts don鈥檛 have a quality middle school option.鈥� Compare that to the 1,000 or so students invoked in the yeshiva outrage.

In addition, in , over 140 public schools 鈥� compared with the slightly more than two dozen yeshivas under investigation 鈥� had at least one grade where more than 90% of pupils did not score proficient on their state tests. In 23 schools, at least one entire class had not a single student pass a math or 颅English grade-level exam. And this was all before the pandemic.

Under these circumstances, could the Regents鈥� ruling actually prove a boon to public school students?

After all, how can a governing body that says private schools where most students fail to perform at grade level in English and math must be revamped or shut down continue turning a blind eye or, worse, accepting similar results in their own public schools?

In 2018, the city attempted to , for the second time since 2011, a Harlem middle school where academic performance was deemed 鈥渘ot acceptable.鈥� The local community, including the NAACP and scholar , who at Union Theological Seminary and was recruited by the school鈥檚 librarian, protested the decision to merge Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts with a higher-performing school and demanded to 鈥渕aintain our identity as an arts school with an (sic) strong academic component.鈥�

The request was heeded, and Wadleigh was allowed to continue operating. As of the, less than half of the student body, 42%, is deemed proficient in math.

Does New York City really want to so much as suggest it cares more about the education of Orthodox Jewish boys in Brooklyn than about the education of low-income and minority students in all five boroughs? Those would be some pretty terrible optics. And just fundamentally wrong.

City Comptroller , 鈥淭he government has an oversight responsibility to ensure 鈥� public dollars are spent as intended. Unfortunately, in recent years, both the city and state have failed to hold yeshivas to appropriate educational standards. It is time for that to change.鈥�

I couldn鈥檛 agree more. But why should those 鈥渁ppropriate educational standards鈥� be limited only to yeshiva students?

Don鈥檛 all New York City students deserve to be equally looked out for by their representatives?

The Board of Regents has determined that only 1% of yeshiva students performing at state-mandated grade level isn鈥檛 enough. Would 42%, like at Wadleigh, be enough? The city has never issued any kind of indicator of what it considers an acceptable number of passing students for a public school.

In light of the latest ruling, once the Regents generate minimum standard criteria for what makes a private school eligible to operate, can those conditions be imposed on public schools as well? 

If nothing else, it would, for the first time ever, compel city officials to make clear just what is and what isn鈥檛 an 鈥渁cceptable鈥� achievement level. Once they鈥檝e done that, they will have many fewer excuses for why they aren鈥檛 doing everything necessary to reach their own goals. And parents will have hard facts from which to decide whether what New York City considers a good enough education is good enough for them.

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