One in five children in New York City – about 20 percent of the city’s young population – attend private, not public, schools. Over the past decade, more than half of those children have attended religious and ultra-Orthodox schools.
According to New York City records, a decade ago, 134,948 students attended Catholic schools in the city, while 73,254 were enrolled in Jewish schools.
While the latest yearbook data shows that 94,589 students attend Jewish schools, and 87,301 attend Catholic schools. Moreover, when measuring only the lower grades, the gap jumps to 531% between Jews and Catholics, out of all students in private institutions.
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Scott Goldberg, deputy director of Yeshiva University, told NY1.com that he believes the growth trend will continue to expand, especially in ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic circles.
""In these concentrations, there is almost no chance of not going to yeshiva or school, because they see the educational institution as the continuity of identity," Goldberg noted.
Goldberg also notes that the soon-to-be-published census of educational institutions is expected to report that over 100,000 students are already studying in the city's rapidly expanding Jewish schools.
