Rockland County, NY – The dirt road that someone cut through a few feet of brush to connect the Hasidic village of New Square to the playing fields of Hillcrest Elementary School in early October is only the latest in a series of puzzles surrounding the contested sale of the shuttered public school.
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In this ethnically divided section of suburban Rockland County, close to New York City, it is also one more cause for an uptick in tensions between the area’s Orthodox Jewish community and their neighbors.
The road might not have been a problem had the New York State Education Department not placed a hold in late August on the purchase of the school by a New Square yeshiva, after a public school parent filed a complaint alleging, among other things, that the $3.2 million sale price was far below market value. And both the prematurely cleared road and the questions about the school’s sale price might have escaped notice if they hadn’t come as emotions over the mangement of the public school system were already threatening to spiral out of control.
Although Orthodox Jews in the predominantly Jewish upstate New York villages of Monsey and New Square send their children to private religious schools, six of the eight elected members of the Board of Education of the East Ramapo Central School District are Orthodox. A ninth, who recently resigned and has yet to be replaced, is also Orthodox. Some non-Orthodox community members allege that the Orthodox members of the board support the religious schools at the expense of the public school system — claims that the Orthodox board denies. But people on both sides agree that anger over the issue is running high.
“The tension is festering,” said Oscar Cohen, an area resident and a member of the Nyack, N.Y., chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He said the actions of the Orthodox school board members are “being perceived of as a Jewish thing.” Others were concerned about the possibility of violence.
this building was given now to a school from clarkstown because there building is un-usable.
The fact is that the Jews pay taxes & don’t use the public school system, so getting a break on a property that will even the balance slighty is very reasonable. But this debate goes back to the battle over school choice & unions where the Aclu has always chalenged any step toward progress & efficency that might create a legal precedent.
The Orthodox Jews being the majority on the school board is simple Democracy known as the majority rules.
Additionally, it doesn’t matter that their children don’t go there because they pay taxes for it anyways. To deny them the right to sit on the board would be taxation without representation and would be real violation of democratic principles.
The main point is that since most Jews dont use the public school system, they should close a few of them & divide them between the rest of them,
and CUT THE TAXES, that would be fair since its unnecessary to have so many 1/2 empty buildings,
People don’t get it, we have double amounts of kids going to private schools but we are the ones paying tax and they, most of them don’t pay tax (they are illegals or are they our tenants) but vouchers for the poor for private schools like in nyc, no way..so this year when the budget was on the ballot they all voted to higher tax, why not they anyways don’t pay but their kids need some additional sports stuff etc.
Ben58 Says:
The fact is that the Jews pay taxes & don’t use the public school system, so getting a break on a property that will even the balance slighty is very reasonable. But this debate goes back to the battle over school choice & unions where the Aclu has always chalenged any step toward progress & efficency that might create a legal precedent.
many gentle and Jews want a refund since many frum people have to many kids that they cannot afford and them get food stamps, section 8 wic or whatever. Why should others pay for you having more children than you can afford when they limit themselves to children they can afford?
Do you agree?
Besides for the irony of the fact that someone named Oscar Cohen is a member of NAACP, let’s remember that the public school supporters are themselves irrational. A few years ago, the board made a reasonable decision – based on the number of public school students in the district – to close Colton Elementary School. The same arguments were brought up then. I don’t have much sympathy for the public school parents – many of whom, by the way, do NOT pay taxes – when they keep looking for irrational reasons to oppose the board’s decisions. If private school parents are paying taxes, they deserve a say as to what happens with those taxes. Check out how much East Ramapo spends per student compared with the surrounding districts for an idea of the waste that goes on there.
If it were 6 out of 8 muslims on the Board no one would raise a word of complaint including our yiddalech. But since its frum people on the Board, all the cockaroaches seem to come out from the woodwork.
No. 4, you sound like Helen Thomas sending the jews out of the country.
Remember the old joke: An old man in a bar was constantly complaining that he can’t go to the ballgame – too many jews there. He can’t go to the swimming pool – too many jews there, can’t go bowling – too many jews there. can’t go to Florida on vacation – too many jews there. A patron hearing this says to the old man:
Why don’t yeh go to Hell not many jews there.
You are a frum jew hater by the way you write your venom and its tone (even if some of your points are very well taken).You can follow the patrons advice.
This is not merely a question of who pays for whose education. If we want clerks who can add, police who understand the law, and a functional army, it is in our best interests to educate all- regardless of religious belief. Sure, you can save a few dollars by cutting budgets for public schools, but you will pay for it later.
When this country was first founded, all community-run schools were religious, because that’s what people in the community wanted. They got together and made their own school as they saw fit – with their own money.
Nobody ever questioned whether that violated the 1st amendment. Why? Because it didn’t. The amendment’s text reads “Congress shall make no law…”. It only applies to the federal government and nobody else. The federal gov’t had nothing to do with schools and certainly nobody thought they would or should or could. Everyone understood the 1st amendment’s text says what it means and means what it says.
With a Supreme Court ruling in the 19th century, the bill of rights was “incorporated” to the states. At the same time, states got more and more control of their schools. The clash resulted in removal of religion from schools.
This is a disaster. People used to move to a community where they felt they belonged. Their neighbors shared their values. One could always get up and move somewhere else and form new communities. It was a free country. Not anymore. Anyone who wants to form their own school now has to pay for both it and the public one.