I am not quite sure what to think of this, and I have no understanding of what the demand for 7 hours of secular studies is - 7 hours a day? a week? a month? 7 per day would be ridiculous - my kids dont even go to school for 7 hours a day! 7 a week, and definitely a month, doesn't sound like a problem.
Rabbi Reisman on the threat to our community from Agudath Israel on Vimeo.
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It's seven hours per day.
ReplyDeleteThis is an overreaction by the government to the issue of Chasidish schools who don't teach limudei chol. There are groups now several groups of young adults who went through the Chasidish system and then became either less frum or not frum at all, and realized that they have no way to move forward in the world since they have no secular education.
There was a push for local school districts to get involved, but Simcha Felder, a frum NYS State Senator, was able to make it that only the State Education Department could oversee private schools. It was thought that this would help, since the majority of the pressure was at the local level in NYC, but the State Education Department just came out with guidelines requiring "substantial equivalency", which they defined as seven hours per day of certain secular subjects.
Essentially - the Chasidish community played power politics and dragged along the rest of the Yeshivish community, and now it's blown up in their faces.