US Constitution, First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
I think there is enough here to make a civil rights case – NYS is attempting to abridge our rights to freedom of religion. This arbitrary ruling, especially when it is significantly different than rules applied to public schools, on top of the fact that Yeshiva students outperform public school students, is clearly an attempt to use “rules” to prevent our study of religion. This is not much different than asserting “time and place” rules to prevent assembly (of unwanted classes), which has already been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
I think we need to challenge these things hard and fast. Soft and diplomatically doesn’t work against people with an agenda.