ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY (JTA) – A federal appeals court in New York affirmed that a voting method that elected a majority Orthodox Jewish school board in upstate East Ramapo violates the Voting Rights Act, Lohud.com reported.
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Most of the Rockland County district’s public school students are minorities and most of the Orthodox children attend private schools.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals endorsed a lower court ruling that said the district’s at-large voting method disenfranchised Black and Latino voters. The court backed a remedial plan to divide the district into nine wards, with each ward electing one board member.
New elections using the ward-based system for all nine seats will be held on Feb. 2.
Control of the East Ramapo school board has long been a source of tension between area Orthodox Jews, who have been active in running for and voting for board positions, and minority communities. Minority students in the public school are greatly outnumbered by the private school students who attend local yeshivas and benefit from busing and other services provided by the school district.
The case against the district was brought by the NAACP.
The appeals court panel said the school board, dominated by Orthodox Jews and their allies, proved to be “chronically unresponsive to public-school concerns.”
“Today’s ruling reaffirms what’s been clear all along: The white private school community hijacked East Ramapo’s school board and its elections,” said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which represented the NAACP in the case.
District representatives did not comment on the ruling.
The fact must be stated that that the orthodox community shoulders most of the school taxes in East Ramapo and we get almost nothing for it. No taxation without representation
Just register twenty thousand Yeshiva kids in the local public school. See how they react.
This route of showing Jewish presence on community boards, has long been disputed by the elder Lithuanian Rabbis of Monsey. The other large Jewish communities of Lakewood and Jackson must face the reality that this is going to come their way. They must not vote in private school parents, rather find former public school parents willing to work with them.
the courts will continue to rule in favor of democrats and against conservatives or orthodox jews that they hate
once people understand who the courts serve, they will no longer want to be law abiding. USA is officially a banana republic
Disgusting and shameful behavior, how you can totally disenfranchise your fellow citizens is appalling. Glad to hear that the State will finally begin fixing this
The taxes in monsey will now double
So let me get this straight … the same people (NYCLU/NAACP) who insist that the Electoral College is unfair and elections should be decided by the popular vote, are the same ones complaining here that the popular vote is unfair and that the district should be divided into 9 wards each with one vote regardless of population. Apparently popular vote is only unfair when it favors Orthodox Jews.
A clinton judge an obama judge and a vermont bush judge, if blacks and latinos lose elections, change the format kinda like when they fail at tests.
How about providing a link to the court decision?
Someone has to figure out a map that will have the majority frum neighborhoods secede from East Ramapo School District just like Kiryas Joel did decades ago. Even if it means making several districts. Let East Ramapo fend for themselves without the tax money of Monsey.