YAFFED Communications and Development Manager Ben Tocker testified at the New York City Council Oversight Hearing (Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District), on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Here is a video and a complete transcript of his remarks:
Committee on Oversight and Investigations – Oversight Hearing – Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District
Testimony of Ben Tocker for YAFFED – Presented on June 18, 2024
“Honorable Chair Brewer, committee members, and my fellow New Yorkers, my name is Benjamin Tocker and I am here representing YAFFED. We are an advocacy organization concerned about the quality of education at Hasidic yeshivas. In New York City there are tens of thousands of students attending yeshivas that fail to provide an education that is consistent with New York State law. Every nonpublic school in New York State is required under education law section 3204 to provide an education that is substantially equivalent to that which is provided by the local school district. Unfortunately, in the Hasidic community, there are scores of yeshivas that have ignored state law and have created a culture of educational neglect.
This situation has been allowed to exist for decades. This is a generational problem in the Hasidic community now. The quality of education at Hasidic yeshivas runs the spectrum of virtually a nonexistent secular studies program to secular studies programs that are substantially equivalent. That this has been allowed to exist is a function of collusion between elected officials, education regulators, and the yeshiva operators. Thankfully, the state education department produced clarifying rules that provide a clear framework for enforcement by the local school district. As a result of this action, and court orders resulting from legal cases brought by YAFFED, the New York City Department of Education performed quality reviews of two dozen yeshivas that resulted, last June, in eighteen yeshivas being deemed to be failing their students. Slowly, the system has begun to respond to this problem. Slowly, action appears to be in process.
However, this process requires oversight. Delays drew out the initial investigation for over seven years. In 2019, the New York City Department of Investigation declared that then Mayor Bill DeBlasio had ‘horse-traded’ the issue in order to gain political favor with Hasidic community leaders. Throughout all this time, these yeshivas have been generously funded with public dollars in the form of mandated services aid, transportation aid, text book money, special education funding, and food programs. Each of these government funding programs requires applicants to attest that they are in compliance with all local and state laws. Yet we know that these yeshivas are not. It is an undisputed fact that eighteen yeshivas are not compliant.
We urge the Special Commissioner to launch a full investigation into funding that has been provided to yeshivas that provide only a religious education. We urge the Special Commissioner to provide ongoing oversight to the office of nonpublic schools at the Department of Education. This office is charged with ensuring the compliance of nonpublic schools. This issue has been far too politicized over the years to allow these processes to continue unwatched. Compliance must be verified. Politics must be removed from the assurance of compliance.
Thank you.“