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NEWS
Maryland Gets Its First Aguda Office
by Yated Ne'eman Staff
After years of apolitical activity in Baltimore, Agudas
Yisroel has opened its first official office in Maryland,
under the direction of Rabbi Ariel Sadwin. He says like all
of the Agudas Yisroel of America regional offices, efforts
focus on areas with significant numbers of Orthodox Jews,
i.e. Baltimore and Silver Spring, where he hopes to boost the
presence of Aguda activists in the coming months. However the
declared goal is to help every Jew in the state —
regardless of his place of residence — who is in need
of the organization's services in political consulting,
educational services, community services, welfare services,
etc.
Efforts are currently being concentrated on providing
assistance intended to alleviate the financial burden on the
yeshivas and the families of the staff members who run them.
Rabbi Sadwin and his staff are promoting legislation and
programs that advance private education. At present they are
working to obtain funding for yeshivas through programs
called "titles" based on the No Child Left Behind Act. Every
program is built according to its own criteria and the
application process for these programs is not in the hands of
the yeshivas themselves, making it hard for them to meet the
criteria.
The yeshivas stand to benefit substantially from certain
grant programs, but responsibility for submitting a request
lies on the local public school, which must distribute to the
students' parents questionnaires regarding their income and
submit the forms to the local school district
administration.
Agudas Yisroel is working with local schools to create an
incentive program to encourage parents to fill out the
required forms.
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