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Mostly Cloudy Opinion: Truth and untruth
Lawsuit based on a big lie
By Asher Mansdorf
Issue of August 14, 2009 / 24 Av 5769
Last week, a federal judge refused to issue a temporary restraining order to block the closing of the Number 6 School. Why? Because she is of the opinion that this latest lawsuit by a small group of parents against the Lawrence school board has little chance of success on merit. The case is not over, though; further proceedings are scheduled to take place this week and next.
Generally a suit by parents against a school board is unremarkable, but this one received national attention. It accuses the school board of trampling the separation between church and state, claiming, “The Orthodox (Jewish) majority on the Board of Education, in a concerted effort to divert public monies to support the religious precept of Yeshiva enrollment, and in order to establish Orthodox Judaism as the official religion of the Lawrence Union Free School District, has utterly abandoned its duties to the innocent public school children who they are elected to serve.”
It also reinforces “The Big Lie.”
George Orwell defined “The Big Lie” in his classic novel, 1984, as “to tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed.”
You know how its works: Never allow the public to cool off. Never admit a fault or wrong. Never concede that there may be some good in your opponent. Never leave room for alternatives. Never accept blame. Concentrate on one opponent at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong. Unfortunately, people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one, if you repeat it frequently enough.
This latest lawsuit, the most recent iteration of the distorted tale of the evils of the Five Towns Orthodox Jewish community, is “The Big Lie.” It is more than idle gossip and rumor. It ignores fact. It attempts to legitimize bias in a socially acceptable form. It maligns an entire law-abiding community that happens to be different than the plaintiffs when it claims that Orthodox Jews are unfit to serve on the school board. It is racist. It is classically anti-Semitic. It is as overtly heinous as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Who would dare accuse any other racial or religious group of being unfit to participate in local government? Only a bigot would do that. But that’s exactly what the plaintiffs’ have done. Imagine the public outcry if these parents had claimed that there were too many Blacks, Hispanics, Asians or Catholics on the board? But, to these parents, being an Orthodox Jew is a disqualification from elective office.
I am sure that, if asked, the plaintiffs would say that it’s OK to be Orthodox and to be different. It would be socially unacceptable and politically incorrect to say otherwise. But their lawsuit reveals their true feelings. It is OK to be different — as long as you’re different on their terms: Yes, you must pay school taxes, but no, you cannot have a say in how those tax dollars are spent. Yes, you can live in our community, but no, you cannot have any say in community institutions. Yes, you can send your children to a Yeshiva, but no, they can’t use publicly funded buildings. Yes, you can vote, but no, you can’t vote for candidates who represent your views.
The centerpiece of the lawsuit is its very biggest lie. It accuses the school board of starving the public schools and diverting funds to the yeshivas. Public school education is in decline. The school district is being taken apart brick-by-brick to be sold to yeshivas.
Most of the actual facts are inconvenient for the plaintiffs, and thus ignored. Only the limited facts that suit their purpose are repeated.
Yes, it’s true that Orthodox Jews comprise a majority of the members of the school board. This first occurred in May 2004. Previously, parents who sent their children to public school, private school and parochial school, or had no children in any school in the district, controlled the board. What happened for 20 years under their tenure? There were no major capital projects. The Middle School roof leaked. No improvements were made to the fields. The heating systems degenerated and the foundation of the Number 6 School was eroded by water. No one voiced any concern that the Number 5 School had a blacktop schoolyard and no grass. The water and gas in the Middle School’s labs were shut off 20 years ago and never repaired. The Number 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 Schools were not made accessible to the handicapped and the Middle School elevator was constantly out of order. We suffered skyrocketing taxes as the district illegally amassed an $18 million surplus, when the legal limit was less than $1.2 million. The school board funded an illegal $5 million dental reserve fund. The board spent $1 million on a software program that was never installed, bought Palm Pilots that were never distributed and supplied board members with personal laptop computers. In short, the entire infrastructure of the school system was permitted to decay.
Most importantly, educational performance was in free-fall. Nonetheless, the board voted salary increases and benefits packages for the teachers that placed the District at the very top of teacher compensation in New York State. An average teacher’s salary in our district is approximately $95,000 plus benefits.
“The Big Lie” always ignores inconvenient facts. Here are a few more that have been conveniently ignored.
In the last five years, while the majority of members of the board are Orthodox Jews, the district has achieved remarkable results.
- For the first time in more than 20 years academic scores are on the rise.
- The only full day Pre-K program in Nassau County was instituted and has resulted in tremendous academic gains for children now entering first grade.
- The High School graduation rate is up and truancy is down.
- Every building will be handicapped accessible and every building is undergoing renovation. More than $17 million is being spent on infrastructure repairs without an increase in taxes.
- All the labs are being upgraded and will be current.
- The phone and computer systems have been replaced, enabling the broadest possible use of the Internet by students, faculty and staff.
- All of the buildings are going wireless, allowing each classroom be a computer lab.
- Most classrooms already have smart boards — technology that allows teachers to have real-time Internet access in the classroom — the rest are slated to get them.
- The football field is being replaced with an all-weather playing surface, at a cost of $1 million.
- There are more elective High School courses now than there were five years ago.
- A Fine Arts, Music and Dance Academy was founded and funded. We are the only the school district in the Five Towns that has an advanced fine arts program.
- Despite several years of contingency budgets no athletic programs were eliminated.
- The sports program is thriving in our district unlike in many other Long Island communities that are mothballing their programs to save money.
The only antidote to lies is the truth. I hope that this lawsuit will be the vehicle for positive change by emphatically debunking “The Big Lie” and chastising those who tell them. Fair-minded individuals will not be swayed by scurrilous and baseless lawsuits. They will always be guided by the truth. That is the American way.
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