I remember reading that a total of 6 hours of secular instruction in the mandated subjects are now required by NYS. Was that wrong and it’s actullay 7 hours, or is the number 7 hours based on additional lunch time and recess breaks to illustrate that there’s virtually no time remaining for Limidei Kodesh?
Although I mostly disagree with FrumTD, it’s hard not to see how the state is not expecting to compromise on this. So IMHO it’s a huge bargaining chip, and by starting with such a crazy number of hours and scaring us all, they can eventually whittle it down to three or four hours, remove musical instruction as mandatory etc. and get most schools to happily comply and feel they won.
Time will tell.
The real issues will be if they ch”v actually force us to teach subjects contrary to Halacha, and if once most schools are satisfied the rest will have to fend for themselves and all talk of achdus will fly out the window.
Just to clarify, I’m not here to mitigate the threat of this Gezeira, which it definitely is, but that there’s almost no way it will remain in its current form after the necessary lobbying process.
(Imagine, if this law was passed in DC, most likely Arabella Kushner’s dayschool would be found lacking, and the parents faced with truancy charges if they continued to send their kids there…)