21 Jewish Schools Cut Off From U.S. Student Aid Funds

The government is barring 21 Orthodox Jewish schools from federal student aid programs on grounds they provide only “avocational” training.

To be eligible for student aid money, schools must provide education that leads to a degree or certificate and “prepares students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation.”

The schools, all but one in New York City, were first told they might not be eligible for continued aid last October and were allowed a chance to appeal. Letters sent last week to most of the schools informed them that their arguments had not been accepted.

Some of the schools were cited at Senate hearings last year as examples of abuse of the federal Pell grant program, which provides some $6.7 billion a year to the nation’s neediest students.

A federal grand jury in New York is investigating several dozen Hasidic Jewish academies over alleged abuses of student aid.