New York yeshivas want state funding to pay for at least one security guard at each of their more than 200 schools across the state, sector officials told The Post.
Teach NYS — an advocacy group that represents Orthodox Jewish and other nonpublic schools — wants a minimum of $17 million in additional annual funding to finance security personnel, surveillance cameras and other defensive measures.
The group said Friday that the October massacre of 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue has intensified security concerns at yeshivas — and that the state’s current $15 million nonpublic-school security allotment is woefully insufficient.
Teach NYS executive director Maury Litwack said state lawmakers are being lobbied to significantly hike security funding for nonpublic schools.
“Pittsburgh really led to a renewed discussion on these needs,” Litwack said.
Yeshivas — already under intense scrutiny for the quality of their secular teaching curriculum — are currently helping to cover security costs with tuition hikes and program cuts, Litwack said.
The group argued that curricular concerns are immaterial when it comes to the security funding demands — and that the state has an “obligation” to protect students in all scholastic categories.
Gov. Cuomo in June allotted $6 million to support security in religious schools across the state.