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Is The DOE Doing Enough To Monitor The City's Yeshivas?
By
Lauren Evans
Published Aug 11, 2015
Modified Aug 11, 2015
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By
Lauren Evans
Published Aug 11, 2015
Modified Aug 11, 2015
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Naftuli Moster had a goal: He wanted to become a psychologist.
"The idea of being able to help people through understanding their struggles and working it through with them amazed me, yet it was also so obvious to me," he said. "I felt like I had what it took."
But Moster also faced a substantial roadblock. Having been raised in Borough Park as one of 17 kids in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, Moster's educational trajectory was the same as the rest of his peers: Many, many hours spent on Judaic studies, and very, very little time spent on general education. All of this was fine enough, until Moster decided to apply to college.
"There’s no talk of college in yeshiva," Moster told me on the phone last week. Boys are cut off from secular study at age 13, when they enter high school, and instead begin a rigorous program studying Yiddish and Hebrew. "You never heard the word 'semester,' you never heard of financial aid...these concepts don’t exist. I was asked about my high school diploma and I didn’t know what that was."
The Department of Education is currently investigating 39 yeshivas around the city, on the basis that students are finding themselves dramatically underprepared for life outside their tightly-knit, often cloistered communities. The investigation was launched after a letter signed by 52 ultra-Orthodox Jews expressed concern that students receive only an hour and a half total of English and math instruction four days per week, narrowing their future career paths to virtual nonexistence.
But despite assurances from the DOE that a thorough investigation would be conducted, Moster, the executive director of Young Adults For A Fair Education, or Yaffed, worry that the agency isn't probing as deeply as it should be. Moster says that, rather than conducting unannounced site visits to yeshivas, the DOE is simply sending surveys with the delusional expectation that questions will be answered honestly.
"I’d never expect any yeshiva to come forward and say 'Yeah, we didn’t provide a proper education,'" he said. "It’s just ridiculous."
According to the DOE, the agency is still in the process of finalizing a set of requests that superintendents will send to non-public schools in their districts. The responses will determine whether the yeshivas are, in fact, following state guidelines, which requires that education be "substantially equivalent" to that of public schools. Site visits will be made only if the responses are deemed inadequate.
“The City takes its responsibility to address any complaint very seriously. Everyone is held to the same standard, and there is zero tolerance for the kind of educational failure alleged," DOE spokesman Harry Hartfield said.
Gothamist reached out to several yeshivas around the city for comment, but received no response.
But yeshivas are well-versed in girding for scheduled inspections. "Every single yeshiva student will tell you the stories," Moster said. "Depending on the type of inspections, we would have to behave accordingly. If it was the lunch program that was being inspected, suddenly we would get these amazing meals that we never got. If they were inspecting secular studies, those were the things they would stress."
"They can’t have these announced inspections," he added. "It’s not just gonna work."
In addition to English and math lessons being restricted to less than two hours each day, the quality of that education is underwhelming, Moster said. Much of the time is spent disciplining the rowdy preteens, because "the kids don't take it seriously." Even large parts of the English instruction is taught in Yiddish. "You would think that if a school decides to only teach an hour and a half of secular study and only until age 13, at least they’ll make the most out of it and fully immerse them in it," he said.
Yeshiva does excel at preparing students to become rabbis, though around only 15 percent of students actually realize that goal. (Since women are forbidden from becoming rabbis, they actually receive better general education than boys, learning practical skills while their male counterparts study the Talmud.) The expectation is that, when a couple weds, the woman will work while her husband continues his Judaic studies in a post-secondary yeshiva. If he doesn't become a rabbi, he enters the workforce.
Predictably, poverty is high in many Orthodox communities, on par with neighborhoods like Brownsville and Bed-Stuy. Many men secure menial jobs in warehouses or as cashiers, and lucky ones go on to become entrepreneurs. "Overall, a majority of the community is struggling really hard," Moster said.
Despite the seemingly obvious flaws in their educational strategy, Moster does not think that yeshivas' failure to emphasize English and math is intentional—rather, he said, the belief is likely that secular studies are simply of secondary importance to Jewish studies, paired with the argument that yeshivas are not granted the funding enjoyed by the city's public schools.
In an ideal world, Moster would like to see boys spending a minimum of three hours a day on secular studies like English, math, geography and history. (Science, considered "problematic," could be left out.) He would also like for those subjects to be taught until kids are 16.
"I can’t see how any of that would go against Judaism or not work with the rest of what they were being taught," he said. "When you get cut off at 13, there’s way too much time to forget everything they did learn in elementary school."
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