MONROE (VINnews) — The Kiryas Joel School District has released a response to the latest NY Times hit piece against Chassidim, entitled “How Public Money Goes to Support a Hassidic Village’s Private Schools”, which is filled with falsehoods and misleading claims.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
THE STATEMENT READS:
“The story published today by the New York Times about the Kiryas Joel Union Free School District’s support of the village’s private yeshivas with public monies is colored and spun unfairly to convey a false narrative of a school board ignoring purported conflicts of interest and inappropriately funneling taxpayer money to religious organizations. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The District and its board of education work tirelessly to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations in all facets of its operations – programmatic, fiscal, and governance – and passes rigorous state and federal audits each year that substantiate these efforts.
The long-term leases the Times attacks in its article are for buildings solely used for our special needs students, and the leases were approved by the voters of Kiryas Joel and the Commissioner of Education. What’s more, the school district obtained independent appraisals as part of its process, and the facilities were leased at below market costs. Any improvements that we make to these facilities are approved by the State and they will benefit our students, and not our landlord.
Furthermore, the Times writes that millions of dollars flow into the religious schools, but ignores the fact that we – like all school districts – are required to equitably provide these funds for services to the at-risk nonpublic school students within our borders. We have no discretion to keep this money for our public school students and every federal dollar spent is approved by the NY State Education Department.
We explained all of this to the Times and spent countless hours educating its reporter about district operations and expenditures to provide it with a deeper understanding of our community, our legal obligations to the nonpublic schools located within the school district, and proper context for our leases. Unfortunately, this was ignored in favor of a story that is inaccurate, misleading, and we think dangerous, as it comes at a time when antisemitism and attacks on the Jewish community are at their highest level in decades.
The New York Times chose to malign our dedicated Board members, our experienced staff and our professional services. The public would have been better served by a story that helps it understand this unique and truly special school district and community, and celebrates the remarkable work being done here.”
The NY Times is continuing their attack on the Hasidic Jewish community by maligning the duly elected members of the Kiryas Joel School District Board of Education, who volunteer their time to support special needs students.
This is our official response. Please share it widely. https://t.co/5s0nhqHlwk pic.twitter.com/TGrHRDZBbe
— Joel M. Petlin (@Joelmpetlin) February 20, 2023
Kiryas Joel, a village north of New York City, has for years run a public school district that was created to serve Hasidic children with disabilities. The district has directed millions of dollars to the community’s private religious schools. https://t.co/cH2Kv9F7kA
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 20, 2023
Is anything tge Times Said WRONG? Factually the Times is right
Didn’t KJ vote 90% for hochul whom the Times endorsed, against EVERYONE else in the klal except skver? Not they want US to defend them?
oy
I commented on a nice, long, real example of shenanigans, and taxpayer fraud that goes on, BUT THE VIN MODERATOR WON’T POST IT FOR SOME ODD REASON. SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU GO HMMM. MAYBE HE OR SHE IS PART OF THE PROBLEM?? MAKES YOU WONDER.
VIN starting another phony feud w NYT. Like Beatles vs Rolling Stones in 1965. Total joke.
The NYS spends tens of billions for public schools in addition to the counties and boroughs spending billions for “public education” that is “education” of everything kids should not be taught while teaching the minimal of real education…and it shows; public school students are failing at every level while being “taught” in depth pseudo-science that they can can change genders and other such pseudo-knowledge… Public schools produce “graduates” who go on to become career criminals and homeless as well as tens of thousands of entitled, barely working people who the state supports for life. The NYT and ilk are so jealous of mentally and emotionally and healthy frum kids because they keep on destroying their kids emotionally, mentally and very often physically as well and those evil monsters want frum kids to be botched up and confused as well.
Btw, anyone taking the so-called services for mental and emotional “health” for normal children will regret the so-called “education” these government programs are brainwashing their kids with even if these programs directed by frum people.
The Slimes really has it for the Jews!
It is from start to finish a propaganda piece that the NYT put out.
It is a slanted work of subjectivity, that totally misrepresents the truth, with an absolute intent of malice.
The very fact that the entire write-up is presented as an indictment, despite the absence of any cause for this presented, says it all.
In the reporting world it doesn’t make a difference if every factoid is true. As long as the article is dutifully skewed, the product will be detrimental.
It simply takes:
a negative headline implication…
an photo of the most unrelatable subject(s)…
a scandalous introduction…
a distasteful tone throughout…
an absence of comparative context…
no reference to compliance…
and a disparaging conclusion to wrap it up…
…having total operational and legal integrity throughout their district will not stop how reader’s end up being fed a toxic impression that the opposite is not only taking place, but specifically at their expense, and them eating that up without a hint of skepticism; from the discerning readers to the simple, and from those of other private school cultures to readers fully dependent on government support, it seeks to leave them all in contempt of the subject regardless of the facts.
Given all the previous reports that were cloaked in, albethey poor and subjective, investigative reporting…
…this one demonstrated more than any other that it was exclusively toxic propaganda.
And since the subject population are purported to have Jewish privilege, just as likely for being a culture that portrays a good moral standing, despite being a targeted minority, the NYT treats us like our second-generation population should have reparations to pay, if only in the form of incessantly dishonestly toxic press.
Regardless of and despite the positive truth that was there to reveal, this article was out to hurt all of us every step of the way through.
And that about sums it up.
Hashem Yishmor!
KJ’s counter attack is well warranted. But hopefully they’ll also take a look inward.
at least they don’t buy GUNS and DRUGS with public money – just use for Special Ed children
Fff
Of course
When all rational people finished commenting , the haters came out of the woodwork to downvote.
The biggest proof that nyt is anti semitic is how they trusted the lies of the anti frum hate org, yaffed.
No one cares. Going on defense just proves that NYT is partially correct. Modeh bmiktzas. Better to just keep quiet.
On the Brian Lehrer show tomorrow there is a segment against the nyt Bec they got 1000 letters stating they are biased against lebt . We ought to write letters aa well . Let them receive 100k letters about their bias against Chassidim. Of course BL would never air that but still
I am going to believe the Times on this one.