Cuomo Says He'll Cut Funding To Non-Compliant Yeshivas, Citing City's Failure To Enforce COVID Shutdown

Gothamist ^ | OCT. 14, 2020 | JAKE OFFENHARTZ

[SJackson]

Governor Andrew Cuomo pledged to yank funding to some ultra-Orthodox yeshivas on Wednesday, citing his growing exasperation with the city's failure to enforce the shutdown orders for religious schools in coronavirus cluster zones.

"For the schools that have been identified as violating the closure order, they will be served today with a notice mandating they close," Cuomo said during a call with reporters. "We’re withholding funding until the matter is resolved to our satisfaction."

Reiterating his disappointment in Mayor Bill de Blasio's administrative abilities, the governor added that the state could move to "impound all funds" for New York City if the situation is not rectified.

"More than anything I want them to do enforcement," Cuomo said. "I don't know how else to motivate them."

Last week, Cuomo ordered roughly 300 public and private schools in "red" and "orange" zones to switch to all-remote learning. But Gothamist found on Tuesday that the restrictions were widely ignored in the ultra-Orthodox stronghold of Borough Park.

Two people told Gothamist that they called 311 to report yeshivas that were open in Kew Gardens and Gravesend — both of them hot spots — and never received a response.

A young man boarding a bus in Borough Park on Tuesday morning

Scott Heins/Gothamist

A mayoral spokesperson said that city inspectors with the Health Department and Office of Special Enforcement have issued fines to just three schools for violating the governor's shutdown order. A source in City Hall confirmed that yeshivas in Borough Park were the subject of the fines, which could total $15,000 each. The Mayor's Office declined to identify the schools.

Members of the Borough Park community said that investigators were not even scratching the surface of the widespread non-compliance.

One parent told Gothamist that nearly every yeshiva in the neighborhood remained open this week. He said his six children continued attending in-person schooling on Wednesday, even after the city was made aware of the problem.

"Like nothing ever happened," said the source, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal from the schools.

Cuomo said on Wednesday that the ultra-Orthodox community's political power has left city officials skittish about enforcing the lockdown measures.

"The enforcement from the local governments is very uneven, especially when it’s politically sensitive," Cuomo said. "Thats what we're running into with these ultra-Orthodox communities, who are also really politically powerful."

Cuomo has steadily increased funding for the yeshivas throughout his time as governor. It's unclear how the state would go about slashing short-term funding for the schools, and a spokesperson for the State Department of Education declined to comment.

Despite enrolling only 4% of the state’s students, yeshivas receive a disproportionate amount of state and city funding as compared to other types of K-12 schools, according to a report published by the Orthodox-led advocacy group Young Advocates For Fair Education.

"If the governor were to follow through on his threat of taking the state’s portion of the funding, I don't believe these yeshivas would survive," Naftuli Moster, founder of the founder of YAFFED, told Gothamist.

While the exact amount of funding is not known, the city and state are believed to disperse hundreds of millions to Jewish private schools each year.

That taxpayer funding was the subject of a messy four-year investigation by the city, which concluded a majority of the schools were not providing the necessary secular instruction required by state law. A separate independent investigation found the probe was delayed due to "political horse-trading" by de Blasio.

Moster, whose group pushes for more secular instruction in yeshivas, said the governor should have moved to defund the schools for not meeting state requirements years ago.

"The city and state have taken such a hands-off approach to [yeshivas] that they’re trying to play catch up now," he added. "They seem clueless and totally caught off guard with regard to enforcing anything within these institutions."

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

Why not just call up their BLM/Antifa pals who get to riot maskless and suggest they burn the Synagogues down.

[Old Coach1]

Another Democrat attacking Jews. No news here.

[mewzilla]

Oh, boy...

De Blasio considering shutting down early voting sites in area under COVID lockdown: report

[ronnie raygun]

He dont need thier block vote now.

[Eleutheria5]

They’re too busy looting high-end stores in Manhattan to be bothered with Brooklyn synagogues.

[HighSierra5]

Komo needs to be bich slapped.

[HighSierra5]

Actually,Komo needs to be horse whipped.

[Alberta's Child]

Just one more reason why a religious institution should never let Caesar in the front door ... let alone rely on him for financial support.

[tom paine 2]

Lesson: don’t accept money from government.

[Humble Servant]

Boy, that Cuomo dude better watch out—there’s this group? Antifa? They go around stopping people from being Fascists, I hear? Way I hear it, if you’re a Fascist, they’re going to fix you real good. So people who do Fascist things like this Cuomo guy is doing, boy, they’re gonna be in a whole world of hurt from those anti-Fascist Antifa guys, boy.

I hear they all wear Black Shirts.

[CIB-173RDABN]

Years ago I read a book titled Coup d’etat. It covered many subjects but one of interest was what triggered them.

It seems citizens will put up with a lot of stuff from their government before they snap. Two things stand out, uncertainty and lack of equality in enforcing the law (or regulations)

Many Democrat States and Cities are being ran by petty tyrants that seem to change the rules on whims, and apply enforcement of those rule capriciously.

In today’s Democrat controlled area a person can wake up not knowing what the new rules are or have the ability to follow them. If you are one of the protected class no problem, but if you are not you will be hunted down and punished.

When will the citizens of New York stand up and say enough is enough, and then back it up with force if necessary (after all isn’t protest now patriotic, the more violent the more patriotic /s)

[Mr. K]

This is a perfect example of why we need smaller government.

Everyone sends money to the government, the government decides who receives it.

You take government money, you then have to follow government rules.

Or else.

[Alberta's Child]

This is also an example of why people don’t WANT smaller government. According to the article, most of these yeshivas could not exist without government funding.

So there you have it: pathetic sheep whining when the shepherd tells them where the herd can and cannot go.

[familyop]

Yeshivas already include necessary secular instruction. Cuomo is against the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, but that’s no surprise. This morning, NPR propagandists were complaining about the Constitution. They were complaining about the lack of protection for “gays” and lack of protection for “privacy” (in spite of states’ rights to make laws and in spite of the Fourth Amendment).

And Biden may be considering Cuomo for U.S. Attorney General, which could have the outcome of “protection” for his criminal constituency from potential victims wanting to be able to defend themselves.

Who Would Biden Appoint? Andrew Cuomo as Attorney General
https://www.ammoland.com/2020/10/biden-appoint-andrew-cuomo-attorney-general/

[familyop]

It’s been a long time since Rome received a good sacking from the “barbarians” (allusion to “democratic” socialist empire) ;)

[Rusty0604]

Does he have any hard data that these schools have been the source of CV cases THAT LED TO DEATHS?

[Mr. K]

Yes I agree- but they only want it because the government gave it away.

If there was no government ‘program’ to give them this money they would have found another way to have their school. Probably cheaper and better. Government schools are a HUGE waste of money per child.

[Alberta's Child]

Don’t kid yourself. On a per-capita basis these ultra-Orthodox communities have some of the lowest income levels and largest numbers of people on public assistance anywhere in the U.S.

Some of them make Indian reservations look like thriving hubs of laissez-faire capitalism.

[BTerclinger]

Rock and a hard place. If the schools funding get cut, AFAIK most of the parents can’t afford what it would take to run them (even though they pay the teachers bupkis)

With no place to school, a lot might consider aliyah, but even though Israel appears to be accepting Olim during the lockdown (I presume they go into 2 week quarantine?), I think Israel’s economy is nearly on the ropes and I doubt they can afford thousands of new olim with no jobs...

(eleutheria5, correct me here please where I am off base)