After 15,000 people call the Governor to protest his proposed $62 million in cuts to New York’s private schools, how do you send an even stronger message to the powers that be in Albany? If you’re TEACH NYS, you arrange for fifty of the most important Jewish leaders from throughout New York to travel to Albany and tell their legislators ‘we need help.’ That’s exactly what TEACH NYS did yesterday. They arranged for a coach bus to pick up yeshiva leaders from Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Long Island, Monsey & Westchester. In total nearly 50,000 yeshiva students were represented by dozens of yeshiva leaders in Albany. The group met with over forty elected officials in one day and had one clear message – stop the disproportionate cuts to private schools in New York. “This was an unprecedented display of Achdus,” stated David G. Greenfield, Director and Counsel of TEACH NYS, “by working together we sent a clear and united message that our community’s top priority is the affordability of a yeshiva education. It’s simple – we need government to provide our yeshivas with their fair share of government funds.”

TEACH NYS worked with the Orthodox Union, Yeshiva University’s National Tuition Initiative, the Sephardic Community Federation, the UJO of Williamsburg, Mosdos Bobov, Satmar Mosdos, Lubavitch Mosdos and dozens of yeshivas to bring together an incredibly diverse group of school administrators and askanim. After an initial burst of meetings in Albany, the group was welcomed to a Glatt Kosher lunch and reception hosted by Brooklyn’s powerful Democratic Chairman – Assemblyman Vito Lopez and the influential Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee – Senator Carl Kruger.  At the reception, over a dozen legislators stopped by and spoke of their support for yeshivas in New York State. The Governor sent one of his top advisers, Deputy Secretary Marty Mack, to address this important gathering. Mr. Mack was incredibly gracious and pledged to work with the Jewish community leaders

Of course, the askanim spent most of the day rushing from one meeting to the next advocating on their top priority – restoring the CAP funding for private schools. CAP is a state mandated program for all schools. It is a security measure that requires schools to take attendance at the start of every period to ensure that students are attending their classes and not leaving the school during class time. While the Governor proposed a 3.3% cut for public school funding in his December budget, he wanted to cut funding to yeshivas by an astounding 44% primarily by eliminating CAP funding for private schools. The average yeshiva receives over $100,000 in CAP funding each and every year. Unless the proposed budget is changed before it is passed into law by April 1st, yeshivas will lose these funds forever.

TEACH NYS extended special thanks to the nine ‘team leaders’ that volunteered to lead the groups of community leaders to key meetings with elected officials. Those team leaders were: TEACH NYS Director & Counsel David Greenfield, SCF Policy Director Jeff Leb, Yeshiva University’s Eli Shapiro, the Orthodox Union’s Howard Beigelman, TEACH NYS’s Andres Berry, Village of Lawrence Trustee Michael Fragin, Political Consultant Michael Tobman, International Political Strategist Shai Franklin and Former Assemblyman Ryan Karben.

“Yesterday was the culmination of several months’ worth of work. We took an issue that legislators were barely aware of in December and have moved it to the top of their respective lists. Everyone from the Assembly to the Senate to the Governor’s office now recognizes the importance of the CAP program not just to our communities but to the state of New York as a whole,” said TEACH NYS Vice President & CUNY Trustee Sam Sutton.

TEACH NYS is the only organization exclusively dedicated to solving the tuition crisis and works each and every day on behalf of the 500,000 private school students in New York State.

(Berel Septimus – YWN)