The City of New York announced last weekend that 18 yeshivas that receive municipal funding do not provide basic education for their students.
Out of the 18, the municipality declared that four of them categorically do not meet New York state education standards
According to the municipality's announcement, it is claimed that, for example, at the 'Bnei Shimon Israel' yeshiva in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, classes are held only in Yiddish, and there were no classes in the English language, reading, spelling, writing, mathematics, etc.
The local Ministry of Education stated in response that the Ministry's personnel will work with the yeshivas that refuse to meet the municipality's requirements in order to "formulate and implement a plan that will meet the state's education standards."
The Ministry of Education said in a statement that "most of the schools worked with the department, but some did not cooperate with the audit. Our goal is to educate children, not punish adults."
Yeshiva spokesman Richard Bamberger was quoted as saying that the Hasidic community "rejects the attempt to measure the effectiveness of its education by applying a biased set of technical requirements. Using a government checklist prepared and enforced by lawyers may help explain the state of public education. It is designed to blur rather than illuminate the beauty and success of yeshiva education." The community claims that many NYC public school graduates do no know basic math and reading skills, while Judaic studies develop thinking skills and any comparison of economic success and contribution to society would put the yeshivas way ahead of graduates of the system.
The New York Times reports that the investigations into Hassidic schools in New York have lasted through multiple mayors and have often been used for 'political horse-trading' among the city's Jewish voter blocks. Previous investigations alleged that the schools diverted more than $1 billion USD from state or municipal funding to other pursuits.