New State Education Guidelines Will Affect New York City's Yeshivas

The New York State Education Department issued long-awaited guidelines on Tuesday for religious and private schools. The new rules call for state or local officials to evaluate every private school in the state for the first time, and give added authority to New York City officials who are investigating some yeshivas for allegedly failing to teach secular subjects like English and math sufficiently.

The guidelines come out of a compromise reached in April that at first seemed to weaken the state's requirement that private schools provide an education that is "substantially equivalent" to that offered by public schools. At first, Orthodox Jewish leaders praised that measure, but Josh Nathan Kazis, staff reporter at the Forward, says they may have been cheering too soon.

"Hasidic leaders thought this sort of narrowing would limit enforcement," he said. "But yesterday, when the state education department put out its elaboration on this law, it looks like the regulations go well beyond the specifics of the bill."

The Forward's Josh Nathan-Kazis spoke to WNYC's Richard Hake about the potential future impact of these new education guidelines.