So why would you oppose requiring yeshivas to test their students to show that they're able to write fluent English?
I didn't say all Yeshivah graduates can write well. Many can't. The same can be said for public school graduates.
But to answer the question: Personally, I don't believe it to be a necessary part of my child's education. (I'd much rather my son learned how to write Yiddish in school.) Imparting academic knowledge is a small incidental part of what I believe education should be.
Education is first and foremost about teaching how to connect and live with the Eibishter, or, put differently, teaching morality.
To the extent they need to, my kids will figure English out with or without school. Just like their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents did.
Globally, I don't trust the state to decide any part of a *private* school's curriculum at all.
You seem to be coming at this from reading this Agudah letter and thinking it's fear mongering. It may be, but consider these new regulations weren't made in a vacuum.
The activists who got this going have proposed numerous regulations in the past, and they aren't stopping here. This is perhaps the furthest they've gone. In their zeal to give every Chossid a secular education, they've proposed minimum times to devote to secular subjects that even modern Orthodox day schools would not meet. Teachers have to be certified in ways that would eliminate a massive amount of teachers, and numerous other rules that would essentially end the Yeshivah system as we know it - even for those that do teach secular studies.
And all this because of what? A relatively miniscule amount of graduates who are bitter. There is zero evidence that Yeshivah graduates are any more a drain on welfare programs and society at large than the average public school graduate. On the contrary, the community's in-built welfare system alleviates much of the strain on government programs.
I'm fact, the uneducated, poverty stricken Hasids maintain a pretty high standard of living, and have to pay tuition costs that would cripple the average American family.
It's anecdotal, but take a drive out of Jewish Crown Heights where most boys graduate with little if any secular studies, and drive in virtually any direction and look at the policing, medical and other infrastructure that is needed to support the neighboring areas. We don't have entire "school safety" departments in the police force to keep our children safe. The most harmful thing my son has experienced thus far is learning baby shark from some kid on the bus.
You want your kids to learn biology? Gezunterheit. But if you want to force me to teach my kids biology or have me liable to be arrested, you better have a damn good reason for that, and plenty of evidence that I'm handicapping my children's future. The large amount of medical professionals among people who had no secular education belies the need for elementary or high school biology.
And lest you think it's not a problem because they wouldn't possibly arrest someone for this, that's not a risk anyone should be comfortable with, and it's enough if a problem that such a thing is even possible.
