Debate rages over Hebrew charter school
Find a Conversation
| Tue, 02-03-2009 - 12:15pm |
I don't necessarily have a problem with a 'language immersion school' - there are several PRIVATE ones around here (French, Chinese, etc.) - but I do have a problem with the so-called 'charter' schools that receive public funding.
![]()
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110ap_hebrew_charter_school.html
Last updated February 3, 2009 1:56 a.m. PT
Debate rages over Hebrew charter school in NYC
By KAREN MATTHEWS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

Maureen Gonzalez-Campbell talks about a new Hebrew Charter School which will open in Brooklyn in the fall of this year, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009 in New York. Gonzalez-Campbell, who is currently the deputy superintendent of the schools in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., will be the principal of the charter school, which will specialize in the modern Hebrew language using secular texts. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
NEW YORK -- Two years after the debut of a controversial public school focusing on Arabic language and culture, a Hebrew language charter school is opening in New York City, stoking further debate about the purpose of a public school education.
Backers of the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School, slated to open this fall, say it will appeal to diverse ethnic and religious groups and not just Jews. But critics here and elsewhere around the nation question whether public schools should celebrate one particular culture. (me: Nope, they should celebrate ALL.)
"They're trying to transmit cultural values and identity, and that's not the purpose of a public school," said Michael Meyers, executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition.
Last month the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit over a school in Minnesota that caters to Muslim students, and a Hebrew charter school in Florida has spurred debates over church-state separation.
New York City's Hebrew charter school is planned for the Mill Basin neighborhood of Brooklyn, which has a substantial number of Jews, including immigrants from the former Soviet Union but is three-quarters black, Hispanic and Asian.
Sara Berman, chairwoman of the school's board, said Jewish and non-Jewish students alike will benefit from learning Hebrew.
"We really believe that learning a second language helps children in other ways besides the language itself," she said, citing studies that suggest that language instruction stimulates brain development.
The state Board of Regents approved the Hebrew charter school on Jan. 13 with one dissenting vote.
"Any opportunity for your child to learn a second language, whether it's Hebrew or any other language, is beneficial," said Maureen Gonzalez-Campbell, the principal, who is African-American and speaks no Hebrew herself. (me: That's true...it would nice, however, if more than one language was being taught.)
Gonzalez-Campbell, 48, said parents will be attracted to the charter school's low student-teacher ratio - there will be one English-speaking teacher and one Hebrew-speaking teacher in each classroom - and academic rigor.
The Hebrew charter school, which does not have a site yet, is due to open with 150 students in kindergarten and first grade and will grow to 450 in grades K-5.
Like other charter schools, it will be taxpayer-funded. But it expects to raise additional money from private donors and has commitments of $500,000 a year from philanthropist Michael Steinhardt and $250,000 a year from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.
Steinhardt, the father of Berman, the school's chairwoman, founded the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life in 1994 with the goal of revitalizing Jewish identity.
But Berman said the charter school will not promote the Jewish religion, instead using secular texts to teach modern Hebrew.
Berman, whose own children attend a Jewish day school in Manhattan, is a former columnist for the New York Sun, a now-defunct daily that led the opposition to the Khalil Gibran International Academy, with its curriculum emphasizing the study of Arabic language and culture. (me: And this is what makes me question the focus of this school.)
That school opened in September 2007 after its first choice for a principal, Debbie Almontaser, was forced to resign over comments she had made about the word "intifada." Critics said Almontaser should have condemned the use of the word, which commonly refers to the Palestinian uprising against Israel, on T-shirts made by a youth organization. Almontaser has sued to get her job back; the lawsuit is pending.
Controversy arose more recently in Minnesota, where the ACLU sued over the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a charter school with two campuses in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
The ACLU contends that the Minnesota school violates the separation of church and state by permitting prayer sessions during school hours and by giving preference to Muslim clothing rules. Female teachers, for example, have to be covered from neck to wrist and ankle. (me: Hmmm...I seem to remember clothing requirements for teachers in Catholic schools as well - not to mention the requirement of 'uniforms' for the students. How is that any different? And, last I checked, prayer is allowed in public schools already during school hours - it just isn't required. This is one of the times where I'm not sure that I agree with the ACLU.)
The Brooklyn Hebrew school will not be the nation's first Hebrew charter school. The Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School in Hollywood, Fla., prompted fierce debates when it opened in 2007. It serves kosher meals and its director is a rabbi, but an expert hired by the district deemed Ben Gamla's lesson plans "entirely appropriate for a publicly funded charter school."
The Brooklyn school satisfied the New York state regents that it will not violate the U.S. Constitution, but critics haven't been silenced.
Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in an op-ed piece in New York's Daily News that she objected to the Hebrew school for the same reasons she objected to the Khalil Gibran school, because a public school should not be "centered on the teaching of a single non-American culture."
"We don't send children to public schools to learn to be Chinese or Russian or Greek or Korean," Ravitch said. "We send them to learn to be American." (me: While this is true, we do send them to learn about other cultures, histories, languages & that can't be lost in the debate.)






>"Like other charter schools, it will be taxpayer-funded. But it expects to raise additional money from private donors and has commitments of $500,000 a year from philanthropist Michael Steinhardt and $250,000 a year from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation."<
Hebrew isn't a language that's used for world commerce or diplomacy. Those are the usual reasons for learning languages. Maybe a charter school that's devoted to several languages that would be of use. Learning only one specific language should be done privately IMO.
As this stuff gets accepted, eventually we can have Christian schools which study Christianity, from secular Christian texts of course. :)
Let me guess, that'll become about 80-85% of our public schools over time.
Unless one is studying the cultural differences created by different religious beliefs, then religion doesn't belong in public schools (aside from personal prayer, which, as far as I can tell, one can do without anyone else knowing about it anyway).
We already do.
Hebrew is a spoken language.