“In our research, we came across a federal program that should be providing New York’s yeshivah students with over 50 million dollars a year worth of free tutoring services but was not,” explained David Greenfield, Executive Vice President of SCF. “Armed with that data, we spent over a year working with the DOE to change the rules so that our yeshivah students would benefit from this federal program. Boruch Hashem, our hard work has been rewarded with the DOE now agreeing to allow a pilot program of three yeshivahs to receive these free services.” Greenfield went on to explain that if all goes well, next year this program will be expanded to most yeshivahs in NYC. This historic breakthrough would eventually allow tens of thousands of yeshivah students to receive top-notch remedial services at absolutely no cost to parents or yeshivahs.
David G. Greenfield and UJO President Rabbi David Niederman, both of whom were appointed by the Mayor’s office to the NYC-DOE’s Non-Public School Standing Committee, led the historic effort to obtain millions of dollars worth of education services for NY’s yeshivah students. As part of its effort to give yeshivahs the opportunity to avail themselves of federal No Child Left Behind services, SCF prepared for the NYC-DOE a comprehensive 28-page report, authored by noted scholar and SCF consultant David Rubel, whose studies are often relied on by top government officials.
The study found that although the federal NCLB Act requires that all funds get distributed in an equitable dollar-per-pupil eligibility formula for public and private schools, the students in NYC’s yeshivahs have not benefited from this legislation. The report concluded that 30,000 students in Brooklyn yeshivahs are missing out on approximately $40 million each year in Title I services which they are entitled to, but not receiving.
“The federal government established a program to benefit all struggling students, yet not everyone has been able to take advantage of this program. Now that the DOE has agreed to our request to change the rules, I am optimistic that no student in NYC will be left behind any longer,” said Greenfield.
