NYC backs Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox yeshiva’s plan to teach basic subjects; expert says it could have been ‘written on a napkin’

An ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn yeshiva and the city Education Department have a three-page plan to offer basic instruction in English, math, social studies and science, the Daily News has learned — but the proposal is so sparse an education expert says it could have been written on a napkin.

Joseph Doppelt, the principal of Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem in Williamsburg, has told state officials that over the next few months, the school will develop “curriculum maps” for basic education it can implement by the end of the 2023-2024 school year.

The school will also develop an outline for health education by August, covering mandated topics from handwashing and hygiene to alcohol and tobacco abuse, say documents filed with the state and obtained by The News.

Those maps will also identify ways the school’s Judaic Studies curriculum “satisfies learning standards,” the plan reads.

State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa found in October that the yeshiva was breaking state education law that mandates core instruction in secular subjects, starting a 60-day clock for city and school officials to submit a timeline and plan for compliance. The deadline was Monday.

David Bloomfield, a professor of education law and policy at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, said the yeshiva’s plan “could have been written on a napkin during a quick lunch.”

“This is just parroting of regulatory language with no substance behind it,” he added. “It makes a mockery of the commissioner’s order.”

Teachers at the religious school will be required to participate in training over the summer to go over the new curriculum and materials, according to the remediation plan. Before February 2024, teachers will undergo a formal evaluation using a standard rubric for evaluating teachers.

Students will sit for standardized tests in spring 2024. That data, alongside teachers’ assessments and writing portfolios, will be used to evaluate how students are progressing.

The yeshiva also committed to three visits by local education officials, which are not planned to begin until February 2024.

“As this plan is implemented, YMAH will continuously assess whether any changes required are consistent with its religious mission and character,” Doppelt, the yeshiva principal, wrote.

The city and state investigations into Yeshiva Mesivta Arugath Habosem started when Beatrice Weber, a mom of 10 children who left her Hasidic community, filed a petition with the state Department of Education in 2019 about her now-10-year-old son’s yeshiva — where he still attends the fifth grade.

“Many of the teachers don’t speak English language well,” Weber told The News. “My son has to read for them. Or one teacher did a little bit of science, and told them the sun revolves around the earth — which my son knows it’s not true, because he’s interested in space.”

The commissioner declined to act on the petition until the city acted, leading Weber to take the case to court.

In June, Albany state Supreme Court Judge Adam Silverman ordered the city and state education departments to complete their investigations into the yeshiva.

City education officials found the yeshiva to be in compliance with requirements that its instruction be at least substantially equivalent to that offered at the local public schools — but the state Education Department found a lack of evidence to support the city’s determination.

“Why are they [the city] willing to sign off on a plan that is so meager and so clearly not going to provide children with an education?” Weber said of the remediation plan, which was formally submitted by the city to the state.

“I hope the state won’t accept this, because it doesn’t look acceptable.”

It is acceptable to the city. “We believe this plan complies with legal requirements and will enable the school to achieve substantial equivalency,” said Department of Education press secretary Nathaniel Styer.

The state Education Department did not immediately comment on the plan.