Elected officials have known about this crisis for years and have not dealt with it. Parents, former students and teachers have outlined a systematic denial of education, which they say is intended to prevent them from succeeding outside the Hasidic community. In 2015, more than 50 parents, former students and teachers sent a letter to several school superintendents and the city’s Department of Education alleging that 39 Hasidic schools were failing to teach English and other basic secular subjects, and were not in compliance with state education law.
“Generally speaking, at the listed yeshivas, English and mathematics are taught from around age 7 to 13 for an average combined time of only 90 minutes and on only four days a week,” they wrote. “Other secular subjects are not taught at all, let alone taught in English. At these yeshivas, English instruction for boys stops at age 13. Girls generally receive a better secular education than do boys but we are still concerned that it is not sufficient to prepare them for their futures.”
A yearslong city investigation, begun under the former mayor Bill de Blasio, has still not been completed. In 2019, however, the city issued an interim report concluding that dozens of Hasidic schools were denying children a basic education.
The city and the state have allowed those schools to continue to operate anyway.
From governors and legislators to mayors and city officials, and the education officials they either appoint or influence, elected officials have been deeply reluctant to take decisive action to protect these children. The reality is that if they did they could face political reprisals from leaders of the Hasidic communities, who traditionally vote as a bloc, maximizing their sway in New York elections. The investigation languished under Mr. de Blasio, who had nurtured political ties to the Hasidic community. It continues to languish under Mr. Adams, who has also cultivated such ties.
Asked what they planned to do to ensure that Hasidic children receive a basic education in the state, many of New York’s most prominent elected officials had little to say.
Senator Charles Schumer declined to comment through a spokesman.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, whose district includes some of the schools, said through a spokesman that the allegations are “serious in nature” and require a “rigorous inquiry.”