If you register for public, and don’t send, they will arrest you for truancy. If this is done it has to be done in a calculated way on a mass scale to overwhelm the system so they will cave. There must be an end goal, not just willy nilly. At this point the state has all the cards and the Yeshivot are merely reacting. They were caught unprepared. Cringey to watch.
It is worth noting that before the 50s there were no such thing as Yeshivot in America, all religious people went to public school. To flesh out this idea to today, wouldn’t it be interesting if the thousands of Yeshiva kids did in fact register and go to public, and demand all the accommodations to which they are entitled, like all holidays off, time for davening 3x/day, time cut from secular for Torah study, kosher sections in lunch rooms etc, etc. The Muslims and other groups demand and get things like foot wash stations in airports, so….
Internally, this issue should have been dealt with within the Yeshiva system long ago. It was not, and it left an open vulnerability for those with an agenda to pounce. They point at certain ones (that do exist but not the majority) where the graduates cannot even construct a proper letter or speak with proper grammar in English. Most do but it only takes one for phonies like Moster and whoever is paying him, to publicize and publicize it and poof — regulations to teach 7 hours secular.
The 7 hours is likely a negotiation tactic and they know they will have to eventually scale it back to 2 or 3, which is what they wanted in the first place. Then when the Yeshivas “compromise” the state will get what it wanted originally. It is a trick. Yes that phony Naftuli Moster has an agenda/is being paid by someone etc, but there really should not be kids not able to read or write in proper English. Now Lipa Schmeltzer is out there saying the same thing. It is a chilul Hashem to have outwardly “religious” Jews that outsiders can point to and say “see they aren’t learning anything in these religious schools” Hashem is sending a message that this should have been taken care of preventative instead of reacting, when the other side has all the cards. Also, when you take money from the state, for busing etc. they reserve the right at any stage to tell you what to do.