Joseph – The full text of the case is easily found.
In the Syllabus of the court makes 4 points. Both point 3 and 4 refer to their non-reliance on social welfare.
From Point 3:
“long history as a successful and self-sufficient segment of American society”
From Point 4:
“for the Amish have introduced convincing evidence that accommodating their religious objections by forgoing one or two additional years of compulsory education will not impair the physical or mental health of the child, or result in an inability to be self-supporting or to discharge the duties and responsibilities of citizenship, or in any other way materially detract from the welfare of society.”
In the detailed decision there are numerous references to the sufficiency of their education, but here is one quote where rejection of public welfare is clearly noted:
“The State attacks respondents’ position as one fostering “ignorance” from which the child must be protected by the State. No one can question the State’s duty to protect children from ignorance, but this argument does not square with the facts disclosed in the record. Whatever their idiosyncrasies as seen by the majority, this record strongly shows that the Amish community has been a highly successful social unit within our society, even if apart from the conventional “mainstream.” Its members are productive and very law-abiding members of society; they reject public welfare in any of its usual modern forms. The Congress itself recognized their self-sufficiency by authorizing exemption of such groups as the Amish from the obligation to pay social security taxes.”
Finally, not going to bother with the quotes here, the Amish get 1-8 education, it was the couple of years of secondary education that was the issue. Many of the Chassidic Yeshivas don’t even have a sufficient secular education at the elementary school level. Regardless, the issue of social welfare will very likely be one that the State can use to claim that they do not need to allow a religious based exemption from secular education. The Yeshivas that do put out many students who rely on social welfare, will very likely find that the Yoder case does not help them much.