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CV NEWS FEED // The editors of the Wall Street Journal this week slammed the New York City Board of Education as “secular education cops” after the Board sued a Jewish family who received approval from the state for tuition reimbursement. The family chose a Jewish parochial school that could accommodate their autistic child’s needs.
“Progressives are relentless in trying to block public funding for religious schools,” began the authors in the Jan. 1 editorial, pointing to the lawsuit titled Board of Education v. E.L.
The family is still awaiting a ruling in the suit that the New York City Department of Education (DOE) filed against them. The DOE argued that it should not have to cover the expenses of “religious instruction” for a student.
“New York doesn’t dispute that the public schools can’t meet the educational needs of the autistic child,” the editors wrote. “The only question is whether his family should have to pay the state because the school they chose is too Jewish. We hope the ruling against New York is appropriately caustic.”
In 2022, the New York City-based family sought an individual education plan (IEP) for their autistic son, who is in kindergarten. IEPs afford personalized academic accommodations. Because the public school system was unable to meet their child’s academic needs, the parents placed their child in Irving Montak Sinai School at SAR Academy, according to the editors.
The school offers programs for children and adults, according to the school’s website, and “is widely regarded as one of the country’s leading Jewish schools for children with learning or developmental disabilities whose needs cannot be met in a regular education setting.”
“Our schools serve children with a wide range of disabilities,” the website continues, “providing individualized programming, highly specialized services, in-house therapies, and a 1:1.2 professional-to-student ratio.”
Upon reviewing the accommodation, a state review officer concluded that the parents could be reimbursed for the education, including the religious educational aspects. The lawsuit followed.
“Though a kindergartner needs to learn how to read, New York objects to reimbursing the school for parts of the academic program that include reading about Jewish holidays,” the WSJ editors wrote. “The secular education police really are nasty.”
As CatholicVote previously reported, President-elect Donald Trump announced while on the campaign trail that he would support universal school choice.
2024 saw a range of legal, legislative, and other efforts to expand access to private and charter schools, especially through voucher systems, with mixed success. In November, voters in Kentucky, Colorado, and Nebraska rejected pro-school choice state constitutional amendments.
In North Carolina in the same month, however, the state’s House of Representatives overrode the governor’s veto of a bill that increases funding for the state’s private school voucher program, according to NC Newsline.
In June 2024, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court ruled against a Catholic charter school that would have been entitled to state funding, declaring it “unconstitutional.” In September 2024, the U.S. Ways and Means Committee passed a nationwide school choice bill, moving it to the House floor for consideration.
