The entire YAFFED team joined renowned education policy attorney Michael Rebell on Thursday, September 18, at the Kings County Supreme Court for the announcement of a class action lawsuit to reverse New York State’s dismantling of education standards for nonpublic schools in a backroom political deal during this year’s state budget process.
Mr. Rebell filed the suit against the state together with the firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP and the Youth Advocacy and Policy Lab at Harvard Law School on behalf of the approximately 100,000 Hasidic students who were denied access to education in their nonpublic schools. In his statement, Rebell said: “The Constitution requires that the state ensure all children — including those in private and religious schools — receive a sound, basic education. When the state weakens enforcement of that guarantee, it fails its most fundamental obligation.”
Cayla Bamberger at the New York Daily News and Dan Clark at the Albany Times Union first reported on the lawsuit this morning.
As I told the Daily News, Albany Times Union, 1010WINS, and others today, while not a party in the lawsuit, YAFFED is supporting this legal action because education cannot be something that is politicized. Our children’s futures cannot be traded in a political backroom deal.
YAFFED Executive Director Adina Mermelstein Konikoff on 1010WINS, Thursday, September 18
New York State Senator Robert Jackson, a longtime champion of education in the legislature, joined Mr. Rebell and YAFFED outside the courthouse today in support of the lawsuit. “A state that denies our children the tools to learn denies them their future. The promise of the opportunity for a sound basic education is not reserved for some – it belongs to every child in New York state.” Senator Jackson said.
In a statement to the press earlier that day, Senator Jackson said about the lawsuit: “In the Legislature, I have worked alongside advocates for educational equity as they have fought for the right to learn. I am proud to stand alongside them as they make their case in court – every child in New York deserves a fair chance to succeed, and that starts in the classroom.”
Several other legislators also weighed in: State Senator Liz Krueger joined Assembly Members Phara Souffrant Forrest and Dana Levenberg in issuing statements supporting the legal challenge.
“The changes made to substantial equivalency standards in this year’s budget, snuck in at the very last minute, were shameful. They abandoned our moral and legal responsibility to ensure that all our children receive a basic education, and they will hurt Jewish children the most. This is not a religious issue, it is one of the basic rights of New York children as guaranteed in our state constitution, and I am glad to see these provisions will be challenged in the courts,” said New York State Senator Liz Krueger.
Senator Krueger has been a leading legislative advocate for educational equity in yeshivas, and prominently denounced the gutting of substantial equivalency enforcement in a fiery speech on the Senate floor.
“Education is the foundation of economic mobility. When children are denied an education, they are denied the chance to build their own future. As a state, we cannot accept a reality where tens of thousands of children are cut off from this opportunity,” said New York State Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest.
“Our state constitution says that all students are entitled to a sound, basic education. Substantial equivalency is how we protect that important constitutional right for students who attend private school. I stand firmly with the students and education advocates who are fighting to ensure that all New York students have access to an education that enables them to determine their own futures,” said New York State Assemblymember Dana Levenberg.
As the 2025 school year gets underway, the changes to regulations are preventing education authorities from effectively enforcing the law. Schools are now allowed to evade standards that the New York State Education Department (NYSED) spent years carefully developing by eviscerating requirements used to prove compliance. The lawsuit filed today seeks to enforce this right for private school students for the first time by reversing the gutting of substantial equivalency regulations, which enforce education standards in nonpublic schools.