Jewish schools educated more than 151,000 students in New York State in 2013, the last year a careful count was done. And taxpayers have a stake in how well the yeshivas are doing their jobs. The Jewish schools absorb more than $100 million a year in city government funds for things such as textbooks, special education, security, and transportation. What's more, if yeshiva students don't get the skills necessary to participate in the economy, other taxpayers may be stuck supporting them with subsidized housing and medical care, the schools' critics contend. Some Jewish schools serve essentially like other private schools, as feeders to secular higher education or the workplace. The critics, though, are focused on the education in ultra-Orthodox schools, especially Hasidic institutions. Boys spend most of their school day studying these sacred texts and related writings, often to the near exclusion--critics contend--of traditional school subjects such as English and math. The current controversy is being fought against the backdrop of education law that was largely shaped by a conflict between Catholics and Protestants in the second half of the 19th century--a battle over control of tax dollars for education.