When I worked at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia a decade ago, I delighted in giving tours around the permanent exhibition, especially the part that highlighted the different things a U.S. citizen can, and in some cases should, do. Serve on a jury. Serve in the military. Vote. Run for office. It was an interactive experience, because citizens do: They decide legal cases affecting the lives of millions of people, or take an oath of office to uphold the Constitution on everyone's behalf.
This is what is at stake in the seemingly esoteric political struggle over whether and how New York State can regulate the education in private Orthodox yeshivas.
As my colleague Josh Nathan-Kazis reported, the $168 billion budget for the state of New York was held up last week by one lawmaker, Simcha Felder, as he tried to insert a provision that would weaken the government's ability to regulate education in Orthodox yeshivas.
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