N.Y. School Bond Passes — $38M Boost to Yeshivas

Image by thinkstock
Voters in New York state passed a schools bond act that may provide up to $38 million in reimbursements to Jewish day schools and yeshivas.
The Smart Schools Bond Act of 2014, one of three referendums on the state ballot Tuesday, authorizes the state comptroller to issue and sell up to $2 billion in bonds to finance educational technology equipment and facilities, the construction and renovation of pre-K facilities, and the installation of high-tech security features in school buildings.
The measure passed by a vote of 62 to 38 percent.
Included in the law is up to $125 million in technology funding for non-public schools in the state – namely religious and independent schools. That translates into about $250 per student, which may cover such material as interactive whiteboards, computer servers, desktop and laptop computers, tablets, and high-speed broadband or wireless Internet.
There are about 151,000 Jewish day school and yeshiva students in New York, according to an Avi Chai study published last week. That translates into up to $38 million for Jewish students. The actual sum will vary by district.
Before the vote, Jewish day schools and day school advocates mounted a campaign to get parents to the polls to vote in favor of the measure. The voting drive was preceded by lobbying last winter in Albany, the state capital, to get the technology funding for non-public schools.
“Obviously we’re very happy,” said Jeff Leb, New York state director of political affairs for the Orthodox Union, which lobbied in favor of the measure. “I don’t think this will go a very long way in alleviating the day school tuition crisis, but hopefully it will free up some money that schools no longer have to spend on technology because that will come from this bond.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
- 4
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In Case You Missed It
-
Theater The ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ revival has us wondering — where are all the Jewish Shelley Levenes?
-
Books From an Italian Holocaust survivor, a Kafkaesque nightmare of imprisonment under fascism
-
Film & TV Why Robby said the Shema on ‘The Pitt’
-
Yiddish World Children taking part in a Seder while hiding from the Nazis
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.