We have some of the best, most active, and smartest lay leaders of any non-profit I’ve ever seen. The TEACH NYS brand is really the gold standard in educational advocacy.
You have people at the OU who work with schools to help them identify public funds and government grants that are available for non-public schools, correct?
Yes, we have a full staff at OU headquarters that works with the business offices at schools to try to make sure the existing programs are being utilized the right way; to ensure the schools are properly utilizing title funding from the federal government and that they understand the programs and are actually getting the right amount of money. The last thing we want to do is fight for these schools to get programs they’re eligible for and then have them unable to access that money.
We help those schools access the funding and draw it down. We’re able to look at what the school is doing and then find money. We have dedicated people who do everything from the title programs to helping with CAP and MSR filings – those huge bread and butter programs for non-public schools in the state. So it’s really a full-stop shop over here.
What do you hope to achieve on March 1 when you have your Mission to Albany/Advocacy Day?
We are going to have a very large group, from all across the state, of yeshiva and Jewish day school students here in order to focus on our STEM requests and to make their presence and passion known to the legislature and the executive branch. It will be a very informative, educational, and hopefully effective day.
