More than $750,000 in grants were received by the yeshivos in New York State this week as the first half of the annual allocations from the state’s Mandated Services Act of 1970. This amount was estimated by Rabbi Moshe Sherer, executive president of Agudath Israel of America.
This is the second year in which the nonpublic schools in the state are receiving reimbursement for their expenditures in maintaining attendance and health records and for student testing, on the basis of $27 per pupil up to the sixth grade and $45 per pupil from the seventh through the twelfth grades.
The mandated services program faces a court test. Meanwhile, the Department of Education is free to distribute the money. Another private school aid program which would have provided the schools with $33 million a year, was ruled invalid last Dec. by a federal court. Rabbi Sherer expressed confidence that the constitutionality of the Mandated Services Act will be upheld in the federal court, where it is being challenged by the Committee for Public Education and Religious Liberty (PEARL). He also commended the state administration for continuing the payments despite the legal battle launched by the opponents of this law.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
