Seminaries Could Get Funds From State
Beth Medrash Govoha, a massive yeshiva in the heart of Lakewood, will be eligible to dip into $750 million in state funding for capital projects if a November referendum is approved by voters.
The borrowing legislation was amended Thursday so that “all private, nonprofit, licensed institutions of higher education are eligible for grants under the bill, without exception,” according to bill language. Final legislative approval is expected next week.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Tom Kean, R-Essex, said that without the change, “schools such as, for example, the yeshiva in Lakewood would be (among) the excluded. They would now be allowed to participate because the majority of their students are not rabbinical students.’’
That follows a national trend of religious schools gaining more access to public dollars, and it’s a marked change from New Jersey’s previous 1988 bond issue for higher education.
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