We, the undersigned, are private school students united by a shared sense of outrage and concern about the roles our schools are playing in enabling the educational neglect of Hasidic yeshiva students.

At this very moment, approximately 65,000 Hasidic children are being denied an education in New York in our name, in part due to the decisions made by the New York State Association of Independent Schools and our school administrations. How can we allow this to happen to kids just like us? Some of us are their neighbors but all of us are their peers.

The dismal state of secular education in yeshivas is a well-documented fact. In 2019, New York City’s Department of Education concluded an investigation they launched in 2015, which found just 2/ 28 yeshivas were providing a substantially equivalent education. For years prior to that investigation, yeshiva graduates and parents pleaded tirelessly with city and state officials to demand yeshivas adhere to the minimal standards many had disregarded for decades. The lack of an enforcement mechanism posed a challenge for local officials seeking to enforce the law, which has existed since 1895.

The current proposed regulations to determine equivalency of instruction in nonpublic schools offer long overdue clarity, stating that all non-public schools must teach a minimum of 3.5 hours of secular instruction in subjects such as English, math, science, and social studies. While this may seem intuitive, the majority of Hasidic boys in New York are not learning these subjects.

The regulations also put an inspection mechanism in place that calls upon local school districts to review non-public schools every three to five years. To put it in perspective, that’s not even close to the kinds of inspections restaurants, cars, or daycares go through.

Yet on behalf of NYSAIS, our school leaders sent alarming, misleading letters to our parents, urging them to oppose these reasonable regulations, no matter the cost to our Hasidic yeshiva peers. These communications sowed fear of complete government takeover and privacy infringement- including the lie that our report cards could be made public.

We demand more from our educational institutions- and from their leadership. We take issue with their active opposition of the proposed regulations and strongly encourage them to align with the victims of educational neglect and advocates for reform rather than with yeshiva leaders and allies whose sole aim is to stymie any possibility of an enforcement mechanism on the existing law.

There is still a chance to be on the right side of history- and to pave the way for real change on behalf of the voiceless and choice-less children and parents in our city and state for generations to come.