Ben Gamla Charter School - Controversy

Controversy

On 23 August 2007, the Broward County school board ordered the school to suspend its Hebrew classes because the curriculum referred to a website that discussed religion. Supporters of the Hebrew classes compare the program to hundreds of other dual-language schools in the United States that provide lessons on foreign culture and language such as the Spanish, French and Greek language charter schools already operating in Broward County and elsewhere.

Parallels have been drawn between Ben Gamla and the Khalil Gibran International Academy, an Arabic public school in New York that also opened in autumn 2007. But some say the Hebrew school could be more problematic. Since it is a charter school it receives public funding but is exempt from certain rules of public schools and is subject to less oversight. Their founders are often teachers, parents, or activists who feel restricted by traditional public schools. Basically, the operators are private contractors who make a deal with the government to educate the children. In contrast, the Arabic school is under the direct management of the NYCDOE system and subject to all its rules, regulations, and statutes. Others, such as Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a trustee of the City University of New York feel that Hebrew language schools do not pose the kind of "potential threat to the society" posed by Arabic language schools.

Opposition to the school is led by Broward County Jewish day schools who have lost students to Ben Gamla and therefore suffer losses in tuition income. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that "an advertisement distributed in kosher restaurants" in the area of the Hebrew school reads: "Excellent Academic Program. Dual language (English/Hebrew) curriculum teaching Jewish history and culture. Rabbi Adam Siegel, Principal (formerly executive director of Yeshiva Elementary School)." This school was clearly marketed in the Jewish community in a way to suggest that it will be similar to a yeshiva, a traditional religious school where Judaism’s authoritative texts are studied, but the tuition there is about $10,000 per student per year.

Per a NYT report, "Opponents say it is impossible to teach Hebrew - and aspects of Jewish culture - outside a religious context, and that Ben Gamla, billed as the nation's first Hebrew-English charter school, violates one of its paramount legal and political boundaries."Harvard Law School professor and constitutional scholar Noah Feldman has criticized the school's Hebrew curriculum as violating of the establishment clause of Constitution on the grounds that the school "seems poised to teach religion as a set of beliefs to be embraced rather than as a set of ideas susceptible to secular, critical examination."

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League said of the school, "harter schools have greater autonomy than a school being run by the Board of Education. Let’s give it a shot, but let’s watch it very, very carefully."

On September 11, 2007 the Broward County School Board approved a Hebrew-language curriculum and Hebrew instruction resumed at the school on September 17, 2007.