Spring Valley, NY – The large Orthodox Jewish community here sends most of its children to private schools but took control of the public school district six years ago.
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Now, there’s a heated school board election pitting three Orthodox Jewish candidates against so-called “public school candidates,” who have or had children in the school system.
Critics say the current school board has favored private schools, closing two public schools and arranging for them to be used by yeshivas, or private Jewish schools.
Members of the Orthodox Jewish community say the board is acting appropriately and trying to make sure that the needs of children attending private school aren’t ignored.
At a Parent Teacher Association candidate’s forum last week, the only candidates that showed up were public school candidates. None of their opponents made an appearance.
It was the same story at an NAACP candidate’s forum earlier this month. The Orthodox candidates complain they never received an invitation.
“There has been a lot of division, unfortunately,” said Kim Foskew, president of the Parent Teacher Association Council. “I wish there weren’t. People are getting angry. It’s just the culmination of everything and it has built up a lot of animosity.”
Similar power struggles have taken place in communities with large Orthodox populations, such as Lawrence, Long Island, and Lakewood, N.J. But in the East Ramapo district, residents say the conflict has reached the breaking point. Both the Anti-Defamation League and the New York Civil Liberties Union have written letters to school officials expressing concerns about various issues in the district.
Situated about 35 miles northwest of New York City, the East Ramapo district faces an unusual situation. Its public student population of roughly 8,100 is dwarfed by a private student population of about 20,000. The majority of private students are educated in yeshivas.
Read full article in The Wall Street Journal
A person who has children in the school system, understands it better!!
I don’t think it has anything to do with education it has to do with the fact that as tax pagers we want responsibility
Please tell me why the public school system needs $20,000 plus a yr per student and the yeshivas make due with less then $7,000
I understandt that legally anyone who is a taxpayer in the school district can run for the Board even if they don’t have kids in the public school sytem. The real issue is whether thats a good idea. In Lakewood and 5T, the results indicate its a bad idea and the candidate simply focus on cutting costs and taxes without any real concern for the welfare of the goiyeshe kids (generally Afro-Americans)
Taxation without representation is the reason we fought for our freedom from England.
As long as some of a resident’s taxes is going towards the department of education, then that resident should have just as much say in the politics and policies of the school as a public school parent.
My tax dollars pay their science labs computer rooms gardens huge classrooms while I should be happy with transportation on over crowded buses that take more than an hour title one and books? Let the district pay even then all will be happy. Give us buildings for our schools and everything else needed on top of taxes we pay tuition too to cover the additional expenses.
The Preserve Ramapo candidates are not to help the public schools they are just here to block the mosdos hatorah. They are a bunch of antisemites.
This was exactly the problem we were facing in the 5T about five or six years ago. The District 15 public school population was dwindling because more residents were Orthodox Jews and sent their kids to yeshiva, but we still had to pay the same school taxes as public school parents. That itself was not the problem; the problem was that the School Board’s budget was as large as it was when the public schools were at 100% capacity many years ago. There was a lot of patronage for the teachers – the board kept employing teachers for classes that had maybe three or four students, such as band and others. Finally, the Orthodox majority came in and reduced the budget and closed some schools, such as the #1 and #6 schools, and combined them with other schools for efficiency. Today, District 15 is run with a reasonable budget, (still over $90 million) and has very high performing standards in the state. But every year, the public school parents still complain that the Orthodox have no business running a board for a school system they don’t use. And the response is always the same: if we pay the same taxes as you, then we have the same right to run the schools as you. And we don’t waste $.