Congress has already subjected the federal government to that standard. And just last month the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in favor of people of faith who had challenged a government regulation that would have prohibited their religious practice. The government lost because it could not demonstrate a compelling interest for its regulation.
Of course, the compelling state interest standard does not mean that government can’t regulate. It simply requires a compelling interest, such as health, safety or other important concerns.
There are already a dozen states across the country that have enacted these laws to guarantee true religious liberty to their citizens. The time has come to offer people of faith in New York that same guarantee – that government will not inhibit or burden their religious practice unless it has a compelling reason for its rule and there are no alternatives that are less burdensome.
That is how I think we can achieve the third of the common values I mentioned earlier. We are given the freedom to choose how to live our lives and how to serve God. We will be able to make that choice free from any governmental interference. And government will put into place laws so that individuals will not be penalized for their choices.
As I have visited the various Jewish neighborhoods in the state, I have discovered that what unites them is their sense of community, their devotion to assisting the less fortunate among them, and the pride they take in their charitable and educational institutions.
I have had the good fortune to have met with students and teachers in yeshivas in Boro Park and Flatbush, in Williamsburgh and Far Rockaway and Monsey. Those meetings taught me that the crown jewel of this community is its educational system. A system that produces thousands of graduates each year who are fluent in both the texts that are the foundation of our glorious heritage and the subjects that are the foundation of our modern society.
It is always a special pleasure to meet with the students who represent our future even as they reflect our past. I’ll never forget one seventh grade girl I met in Boro Park. She raised her hand in front of an auditorium packed with students and teachers and asked me if my office could investigate whether the amount of homework her teachers were assigning violated the child labor laws.
I have also met with yeshiva parents and administrators. They tell me how difficult and expensive it is to maintain schools that are devoted to excellence in two educational tracks, and of how little government does to help them. And they are right.
Government does not always do enough for the students who attend yeshivas and other non-public schools. More than eighty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an Oregon law that would have prohibited parents from sending their children to private and religious schools. The court reasoned that the law “interferes with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children.”
The Supreme Court was certainly correct when it made that judgment. Government must allow parents the freedom to choose where and how to educate their children. But government must also do more. To fulfill the promise of that freedom, government must provide assistance where it can to all schools and schoolchildren, including those who attend religious schools.
A few years ago, I began the process of helping non-public schools get more of the help they need and deserve. I convened a task force that identified several areas where government can provide increased assistance to non-public schools and students. And my office provided a legal opinion concluding that it would be constitutional to implement the task force’s recommendations.
