I. Summary of the findings
To report the article, we interviewed more than 275 people, including 175 current or former students and parents and 50 current or former teachers, school employees and other educators. Dozens of the people we interviewed are still in the Hasidic community. We also obtained many school documents, like budgets, school rules and actual student work. We also toured the only school that let us inside. We analyzed numerous public documents, including data on more than 50 different funding programs as well as test scores for all schools in the state.
The article will focus on what is essentially the Hasidic boys school system, a network of about 150 all-male religious schools in Brooklyn and the lower Hudson Valley that our reporting identified as being operated by various Hasidic groups. Collectively, these schools serve about 50,000 students, a number that has risen in recent years.
The article will say that the leaders of New York’s Hasidic community built this school network to educate children in Jewish law, prayer and tradition and to wall off students from the secular world. The schools provide intense religion-based instruction, which help the students to learn Yiddish, Hebrew and Aramaic, plus moral values, logic and legal principles.
The article will also say these schools provide almost no instruction in basic secular subjects such as history or science. Most schools teach English reading and math on four days a week, often for 90 minutes a day after hours of grueling religious lessons, and typically only for boys aged 8 to 12. The instructors for secular studies are often woefully unqualified teachers, and often earn as little as $15 an hour. Some are hired off Craigslist or ads on lamp posts, and many cannot fluently speak English. The rules for some schools discourage further study at home (although some children do it nonetheless) and, in some cases, ban students from speaking English at home. Many textbooks are censored.
The article will say that, overall, students in these schools are deprived of education unlike students anywhere else in New York. One basis for that statement will be state standardized tests in grades 3-8. Our analysis found that, according to the data provided by the state education department, 99 percent of students at Hasidic boys schools who took standardized tests in the last year with full data available for comparisons failed. At several Hasidic schools, every student failed. The scores came in lower than all public schools, including those primarily serving low-income students and English Language Learners. In fact, when we ranked all schools of all kinds in the state, the ones with the lowest scores were all Hasidic boys schools. The article will also quote teachers describing shortcomings and will show student work, as well. The article will say that these failures are happening by design, because the community feels that too much exposure to the secular world would harm students.
(The article will say that Hasidic girls schools provide more secular education, but its students are also struggling. About 80 percent of students at Hasidic girls schools who took tests in that last year with full data available failed)
The article will say that this has left many boys unable to speak English fluently, let alone read or write in English or perform math beyond multiplication and division. It also has helped push poverty rates in the Hasidic community to some of the highest in the state. The article will trace how this has affected former Hasidic students, including those who remained in the community and faced poverty, as well as those who left and struggled with drugs, alcohol or self harm.
The article will say that these Hasidic boys schools are private schools, and they collect tuition, but they also receive enormous sums of public money, more than $1 billion in the last five years. That includes more than $375 million annually through various government programs (and more than $200 million additional pandemic stimulus funding). The article will say that Hasidic boys schools receive about $50 million annually from city child care vouchers, which they access by labeling the end of their school day as child care, and $30 million from financial aid programs, which they access by saying their oldest students are pursuing Bachelor’s Degrees in religious studies. It will also say they receive $100 million through nutrition programs and $100 million in funding for secular education specifically (including Title 1, School Aid / MSA, attendance and academic intervention). $15 million for books and instructional materials, $30 million for transportation through a program created for yeshivas, and $200,000 through E-Rate, even though they do not allow students and teachers to use the Internet.
The article will say that many religion teachers use severe corporal punishment, which creates an environment of fear that makes learning difficult. We’ve heard dozens of stories of teachers in the last 10 years hitting kids with belts, sticks and rulers. In the past few years, some Hasidic schools have asked their teachers to be less violent, but corporal punishment has remained common. Sometimes, it is so severe that boys call 911.
The article will say that, in New York, private schools are required by law to teach basic subjects and provide an education comparable with what is offered in public schools. And for years, complaints have circulated about Hasidic schools: staffers at the State Education Department have raised red flags, news outlets have published stories and parents have filed legal cases and official complaints. But officials have failed to act, and have instead accommodated Hasidic leaders, who control a powerful voting bloc. The article will talk about the Hasidic community’s political power, which we studied via voting records, and how the schools play a central role, including by sending sample ballots home and giving students prizes for bringing back “I Voted” stickers into school.
Finally, the article will discuss the proposed regulations on private schools that the State Education Department has been drafting, and how the regulations have been watered down after being challenged by the Hasidic community. The community has been rallying opposition to the new regulations