On January 29, 2026, YAFFED Executive Director Adina Mermelstein Konikoff delivered powerful testimony before the New York State Joint Legislative Budget Hearing on Elementary and Secondary Education, calling on lawmakers to fund critical educational resources for students trapped in failing yeshivas.
The Problem: Eight Years is Too Long to Wait
For years, YAFFED has stood before the legislature with a simple message: Do not change the laws governing substantial equivalency. Last year, despite our warnings, the legislature and governor came together to gut education enforcement—giving failing yeshivas up to eight more years to comply with basic education standards.
“That means that thousands of students will graduate out of the system without improvements in their classrooms,” Adina testified. “These students should not have to wait eight years to learn math, English or other skills that will enable them to develop and grow into productive citizens.”
The Data: A Crisis Hidden in Plain Sight
YAFFED’s groundbreaking curriculum study, released last fall, revealed the devastating scope of educational neglect:
- Hasidic boys receive less than 2 hours per week of secular instruction across all subjects
- More than a dozen schools provide zero secular education
- Only 13% of high school classes include any science instruction
- Fewer than 1 in 4 schools teach math
The human cost is staggering: 63% of Hasidic New Yorkers live at or below the poverty line, and Hasidic men earn roughly 30% less than their non-Hasidic counterparts.
The Solution: YAFFED’s Education Resource Project
YAFFED is requesting funding to expand our Education Resource Project—a program that works like an ombudsman, connecting students and families with culturally responsive educational resources.
Unlike programs designed to help people leave the Hasidic community, our project serves families who remain committed to the Hasidic yeshiva system but are seeking basic educational support—often quietly and at great personal risk.
The program provides:
- Yiddish-speaking tutors
- Culturally responsive high school equivalency programs
- Remedial instruction
- Educational counseling
- Connections to community-based organizations with cultural competency
A Matter of Equity
“Our request is about equity,” Adina explained. “The legislature made a decision to give yeshiva operators eight years to improve. Now, the legislature must make an equitable commitment to the families of these yeshivas that ensures access to educational programs to help mitigate the deficit caused by the legislature’s actions.”
The Bare Minimum
Adina’s testimony closed with a stark reminder:
“By rolling back substantial equivalency enforcement last budget cycle, the State gutted meaningful protections, turning its back on tens of thousands of children. Funding this program is not an act of generosity. This is about restoring what has been lost, and beginning to undo a wrong.”
“Providing resources to students who have been left behind is the bare minimum. This funding request asks you to do one small thing now: acknowledge the harm that has been done, and provide students with resources they need to chart their own paths.”
The stakes could not be higher. More than 111,000 students attend 264 Hasidic yeshivas across New York State. They cannot afford to wait eight more years for the education they are legally entitled to receive.
YAFFED’s Education Resource Project offers a lifeline for students whose futures depend on accessing the basic tools—English literacy, mathematics, and critical thinking—that every child deserves.
Will New York step up?