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Secular education advocate groups are hoping to create a system of self-sufficiency for future generations. Hasidic religious leaders are fighting to preserve their way of life. The New York state and city governments are trying to offend the least number of people.

Amidst the logistical battles that regulation of private education presents, the larger picture of equal education for all children is lost.

Shulim Leifer, a member of the Hasidic community, a product of the yeshivas, and an avid Twitter activist, said that most kids in his community struggle to write a full sentence in English by the time they turn 18. He received no instruction in science throughout his school years, had swaths of text redacted from his textbooks, and were taught by English teachers who couldn’t speak English fluently themselves. He estimated his own education in secular subjects at 18 years old—when he graduated—to be at a fourth-grade level.

“Psychologically, I was unprepared for the idea that I am entering a world in which everyone around me knows far more than I do, and is much better prepared for everything. And it’s very difficult to look in the mirror, when you have a deficiency,” said Leifer.

The New York Times found that 99% of Hasidic boys who took standardized tests failed; the average pass rate for all public schools in New York was 49%. The yeshiva system as it exists now creates a cycle of dependency and isolation within the Hasidic community, when children grow into adults who can’t function basically in the wider American society in which they live.

“Nobody thinks it’s okay to be a 20 year-old man, and when your wife’s having your third kid, you gotta get on the phone with your mother to help you fill out the paperwork,” said Leifer. “This is the reality of our lives.”

The New York State Education Department (NYSED) voted to update the regulations concerning private education on Tuesday, September 13th. This decision comes seven years after Naftuli Moster, founder of the secular education advocate group YAFFED, first lodged a complaint highlighting the systemic issues in yeshiva education.

Building on a law that has been in effect since 1895, the updated regulations lay out “pathways” to determine the “substantial equivalency” of a school’s curriculum to those of the local public schools. Bowing to pressure from Hasidic advocates for parental and religious rights, the NYSED revised and rewrote a final version showing what some fear is too much leniency.

“We’re concerned that the regulations are too loose, and that there will be too many schools who will be able to use the pathways, in essence loopholes, to be declared substantially equivalent when they’re actually not,” said David Golovner, an advocacy and government relations consultant for YAFFED.

The task of making the distinction for substantial equivalency falls on the shoulders of local public school authorities, absolving the state of investigative responsibilities. The NYC Department of Education, already tasked with monitoring public school affairs; although they are supposed to operate with oversight from NYSED, they do have a lot of autonomy.

“There is an office of nonpublic schools within the DOE, but their role is mainly administrative,” said Sam Streed, Director of Analytics at the NYC DOE. “I’m not sure that they have the budget or personnel, or really the systems to do monitoring of curricula and educational proficiency.”

The Commissioner of Education also has several options to disregard the local school authority’s findings after their recommendation is made. Most notably, she can choose to extend the timeline for making a final determination of equivalency if the school shows “good faith progress toward development of a timeline and/or implementation of the plan.” What would this “good faith” entail? Would it be possible to continue extending the timeline indefinitely? When asked these questions, Kathleen M. Cashin of the NYSED Board of Regents had no response.

The historical lack of enforcement from local school authorities may also have political motivations. Religious leaders within the Hasidic community wield great political influence due to their control over the large swaths of voters in their communities. Mayoral candidates and administrations have been known to rely on these voting blocs, and so they keep to minimal interference with the Hasidic community.

Parents want better for their children, but they have no choice but to follow the will of their religious leader for fear of having to leave behind everything they know. “I get anonymous messages all the time from people on social media, they’ll say ‘Oh my gosh, thank you so much, this is such important work, I can’t do it myself,’” said Beatrice Weber, executive director of YAFFED and a mother of 10 children—six of whom are in yeshivas. “There are a lot of people that want to see change…but there’s a lot of fear.”

Intervention in Hasidic education by the city and state governments means an impingement on religious freedom to many religious leaders, which threatens their carefully cultivated way of life. “On some level, some people do fear a modern, liberal education being imposed on their kids, like woke-ism,” said Leifer, “and that fear is being exploited by the people who are using that to not provide reading, writing, and math.”

Loopholes, under-resourced departments, questionable enforcement, and murky timelines don’t bode well for the expectation of meaningful change. Unless immediate action is taken to reach a consensus, and create and enforce both a culturally sensitive and academically rigorous curriculum, children attending Hasidic yeshivas with substandard secular teachings cannot hope to grow up to be independent adults in our society.

“In reality, this isn’t an issue about Hasidic yeshivas, religious freedom, or even parental rights,” said Golovner. “This is very simply the fact that everyone should know math in the 21st century, should understand science, should be able to read and speak in the common language of the country.”