Kathleen Moore is reporting for the Times Union that a state Board of Regents committee unanimously voted on Sept. 12 to require all private schools to teach classes in English and ensure all students study math, science, history, and English. The decision would mandate a significant change in how yeshivas and other private schools teach high school classes. Approximately 100 ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered outside the state Education Department on Sept. 12, promising to ignore the new rules. The full Board of Regents will vote on the rules on Sept. 13. The rules would also require that teachers demonstrate competence in the subjects they teach. The regulations would go into effect on September 28, but schools would have until June 2025 to comply. The changes would impact private schools throughout the state. In the Capital Region, few schools are likely to be affected by the rules, which will enforce a long-standing requirement for private schools to provide an education that is “substantially equivalent” to that offered in public schools. The rules would change how high school is currently taught to boys in many yeshivas. In those schools, boys study only the Talmud, a collection of thousands of analytical pieces about the Torah. Boys learn critical thinking as they evaluate the works in the sacred text — but they do not study math, science, history and English as their public school counterparts do throughout high school. At yeshivas, courses are frequently taught in Yiddish. Read the full story in the Times Union.