Language-Specific Charter School to Open in New Jersey
A Hebrew-language charter school is set to open this fall in New Jersey. Unlike the California “Hebrew-language” charter I recently wrote about, the New Jersey school will focus on … Hebrew. That’s right, the school has permission to specialize in one language. Here, its website lists some reasons to study Hebrew, such as gaining an advantage in international business and diplomacy. None of the reasons have anything to do with religion.
I hope the charter school approval process in Missouri will remain friendly to single-language charter schools, so that a school like the New Jersey charter would be welcome here. There are many languages besides Hebrew that could possibly be studied for their religious significance. Religious texts have been composed in Greek, Latin, and Arabic, to name a few — yet all of those languages are taught in public schools. It’s unfair to single out Hebrew or any of those languages as unsuitable for specialization, when students’ reasons for studying them are as varied as the words in a dictionary.
I would be curious to know what the religious make up of the student body is/will be. We won’t know that for a while, and then it is hard to shut a school down, especially one with good test scores.
If the school is largely/all Jewish, it plays into the stereotype that people like charter schools so that they can self-segregate on the public dime.
Comment by Papillon — March 26, 2010 @ 9:14 a.m.
I don’t have data on the New Jersey school, but this New York Hebrew-language charter school’s student body is 35% African-American:
http://www.forward.com/articles/125415/
Comment by Sarah Brodsky — March 26, 2010 @ 9:31 a.m.
From the the article linked “Charter schools now constitute a quietly growing movement and are increasingly grabbing the interest of Jewish philanthropists interested in creative ways of ensuring Jewish continuity.”
That is what I am concerned about. If you want to ensure religious continuity, I am not that excited about it taking place on the public dime. It is always difficult to assign motive, I know.
It is a tricky issue and there are no bright lines on this one, but seeing things like the above doesn’t make me feel good.
Here is a related Supreme Court case. New York State, it was found, made a school district to accommodate Satmar Jews by making the boundaries encompass only Satmar Jews. The minority said it was ok as they are culturally different and that was why the boundaries were as such. The majority didn’t buy it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Education_of_Kiryas_Joel_Village_School_District_v._Grumet#Opinion_of_the_court
Comment by Papillon — March 26, 2010 @ 2:43 p.m.