NEW YORK (JTA) — A group of New York City rabbis is urging Mayor Bill de Blasio to have the city pay for security at parochial schools.

In a letter sent Monday, 24 rabbis asked the mayor to back Intro 65, a City Council bill that would provide New York Police Department school safety agents for parochial schools that request them, the New York Daily News reported.

Council member David Greenfield, who represents a heavily Orthodox district in Brooklyn, is sponsoring the bill and wants De Blasio to include funding for it in a budget to be completed later this month.

“These schools need safety agents like any other school,” Greenfield said. “Every child deserves to be safe.”

De Blasio is not supporting the measure.

About 250,000 students attend more than 800 non-public schools in New York, including more than 110,000 who attend Jewish schools, according to the Orthodox Union.

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