As the May 31st deadline for public comments on New York State’s proposed substantial equivalency regulations approaches, some 250,000 people have voiced opposition. The newly released regulations – which seek to have the state control and manage all private schools in a way not seen in any state in the country – has drawn criticism from legal scholars, professional associations, and parents.

The Orthodox Jewish community, which has over 400 schools, or Yeshivas, in the state, is particularly concerned. For them, such regulations raise not only real concerns of independence, autonomy, and conflict of interest, but existential religious freedom issues as well.

In that context, the historic nature of the volume of comments generated by the proposed regulations, and passion contained in those comments, becomes less surprising.

Aside for the many thousands of individual comments submitted, hundreds of professionals – lawyers, accountants, software engineers, and mental health professionals – have joined together to make the voices of their profession known to the State Education Department. Others have debunked the disinformation that has been used to justify these regulations.

“There are agitators who claim they speak for a silent majority who support these regulations. It’s easy to make hollow claims. For the second time in three years now, seeing the hundreds of thousands of opposition comments flowing in, the facts make this assertion untenable,” said Rabbi Yehoshua Pinkus, director of Yeshiva Services of Agudath Israel of America.

“It is interesting to see the opposing comments emanating from every sector of Orthodox Jewry,” said Avrohom Weinstock, Agudah’s chief of staff. “While Orthodox Jews are far from monolithic in dress, worldview, and practice, they are staunchly united in their assertion that it is parents who should be deciding how their children are educated and raised, not government. What we are seeing here, en masse, is parents asserting those rights.”

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