From the Desk of Maury Litwack:
This is why Teach Coalition is fighting so hard for nonpublic schools. Politico reported in an article published today that NYC yeshiva students are not receiving grab and go lunches and many households are without laptops for remote learning. Many yeshiva students come from large families or low-income homes. We cannot allow them to fall behind in their education or miss lunches that they depended on the city to provide. Pandemics don’t discriminate between public and nonpublic schoolchildren.
To this end, Teach Coalition remains in close contact with lawmakers at all levels in an effort to ensure that appropriations do not exclude nonpublic schools. While schools were still open, we lobbied New York City to include nonpublic schools in the Department of Education’s plans to provide cleaning and sanitization supplies. In New Jersey, we spearheaded a successful effort to include nonpublic schools in an emergency relief legislative package for specialized cleaning and sanitization as well as a new grant program that will reimburse schools for tech devices they purchase. The New Jersey legislation awaits final passage.
Teach Coalition is also connecting schools with legislators so they can ask questions and share their concerns directly, and we continue to work with schools who need our assistance in accessing funds from programs as they become available.
If you have suggestions, advice or guidance during this time that can help us in our work – please let me know.
Maury Litwack
Executive Director, Teach Coalition