New York State should not, and cannot under the US Constitution, support religious education. I am glad for that, because (among other reasons) I know that if taxpayer dollars are used to support religious education, we Jews will not fare very well in the contest for that money. The long-term solution for reducing education costs for Jews seeking a religious education is to separate secular and religious education by sending Jewish children to public schools for non-religious education, and also sending them to Jewish schools for religious education. It is not a perfect solution – the notion that secular and religious matters are utterly separable is unsound – but it is ultimately the best solution to the problem of taxpayer support for education in a democracy.

I believe that Jewish communities have been slow to recognize that the future lies in the use of dual educational resources because, in part, the Jewish educational establishment is protecting its resources, including its heavy investment in fixed assets like school buildings, and its desire to provide a source of employment for the personnel who run its schools. That desire, while admirable and understandable, has put an enormous burden on observant Jews and threatens to weaken the frum community. I would hope that the frum community will recognize this and gradually modify its reliance on exclusively Jewish schools for the education of our children.