BROOKLYN
(PEARLS NY)
Over summer break, more than 135,000 parents, alumni, educators and supporters of private education in New York submitted comments to the State Education
Department expressing opposition to the proposed “substantial equivalency” regulations and urging that they be withdrawn.
An extraordinarily diverse coalition of schools and organizations have opposed the proposed regulations, including the Catholic School Superintendents overseeing all 535 Catholic schools in New York, the New York State Association of Independent Schools, the umbrella group speaking for more than 200 Independent schools in New York, the Council for American Private Education and the New York State School Boards Association. The latter is particularly significant, because the proposed regulations require the local school boards to implement and enforce them.
New York’s Jewish school community also vigorously opposed the regulations. Public comments in opposition to the regulations were submitted by Agudath Israel of America, the Orthodox Union, Torah Umesorah – the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, and the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, among others. Of the more than 135,000 comments submitted by private-school advocates, over 120,000 were from the Jewish community.