About Bloody Time

After years of Orthodox Jewish control of the East Ramapo School Board, where they have done little but strip the school system for parts, parents have sued the New York State Department of Education demanding a state takeover.

From their press release:

On January 14, parents of public school children in East Ramapo Central School District filed a petition in State Supreme Court in Albany, asking the court to direct the New York State Board of Regents and the State Education Department (SED) to take concrete remedial action to safeguard their children’s right to a sound basic education as guaranteed by the New York State Constitution.

The petition describes numerous State and federal investigations and reports documenting a continuing pattern of fiscal mismanagement and neglect by the East Ramapo Board of Education over the last decade. The Board’s mismanagement has resulted in a severe lack critical educational resources, resulting in poor student outcomes and depriving district students of a sound basic education. The reports, including two in the last year by State-appointed monitors, provide compelling and overwhelming evidence of a district on the brink of financial collapse. 

In these reports, State and federal officials document the Board’s failures to provide essential programs and services to vulnerable student populations, including English Language Learners (ELL) and students with disabilities. They also spell out the signficiant cuts made by the Board in the number of classroom teachers and support staff employed by the district and in essential school programs.

Over a year ago, a comprehensive report by a fiscal monitor appointed by former State Commissioner John King made numerous recommendations to address the Board’s mismanagement, reallocate funding within the district’s budget, and begin restoring essential resources cut from district schools. These recommendations were echoed in a December 14, 2015, report to the Board of Regents by Dennis Walcott and a team of monitors appointed by State Commissioner Mary Ellen Elia in August.

Despite the State’s best efforts to secure their voluntary cooperation, the Board has steadfastly refused to take meaningful steps to fix the problems identified in the reports and take prompt corrective action to provide students with a sound basic education.

The East Ramapo school board is attempt to destroy the public school system for two reasons:

• They don't want to pay any taxes.
• They are attempting to ethnically cleanse the town, and killing the public schools is a good start.

Unfortunately, the politicians, and hence the bureaucracy, is unwilling to take any political heat from New York's frum Jewish community, so nothing has happened.

If I were a plaintiff, I would be asking to move the elections to the November elections for President and Congress.

Having the elections at an odd time, Spring of odd-numbered years, is a recipe for this sort of crap.

I would also see any number of the board members prosecuted for corruption, as it is clear that they are engaging in sweetheart deals with the local Yeshivas, but I don't see that as being politically possible unless the Feds step in.