The New York City Board of Education has been urged by a spokesman for Hebrew day schools to maintain centralized programs of Federal and state aid to those schools whatever decentralization plan is eventually adopted for the city’s public schools. Rabbi Murray I. Friedman, a consultant to Torah Umesorah, the national society for Hebrew day schools, appeared at the Board of Education hearings on decentralization.
He said, “We are concerned about the future place of day schools under decentralization since it has become increasingly evident on the basis of recent experience with limited decentralization plans that the assignment of funds on a district-by-district basis assumes a negative character when applied to the…day school system.” Rabbi Friedman said, “For the Hebrew day schools, in particular, which terminate their studies between half-past four and six o’clock, pupil participation in decentralized programs has been made well nigh impossible by the repeated refusal of local superintendents to recognize the special needs of these pupils and make the necessary accommodations.”
He said it was “imperative that the programs for the non-public schools which have been operated centrally by the Board of Education with the use of Title I funds, as well as other Federal and state aid programs, such as transportation, school lunches, text books and library services, continue to be administered in the same manner regardless of the nature of the decentralization plan which is approved for the city’s schools.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
