First Jewish Charter School

I'm using a new feature called 'clipmarks' to blog about news items I read. It's an interesting concept - the tool lets you highlight excerpts (up to 1000 characters) of the article and post it directly to your blog. We'll see how it goes.

The news item below marks the next step in the coming revolution in Jewish education. As I wrote here and here regarding the Five-Towns public school proposal,I do not think that the day-school system that has worked so well for the last few generations is ultimately sustainable. It costs too much.
Well, now it begins in earnest. If a parent sends their kids to this public school, and the kid gets instruction in Hebrew language, Jewish history, and Israel studies, not to mention kosher meals and the availability of a minyan, how difficult would it be to supplement this non-religious curriculum with some after-hours Chumash, Mishna, and Gemara? Is the difference really upwards of 10 Gs a year?

clipped from www.jta.org Tzipora Nurieli, an Israeli-born Hallandale woman, said she registered her three children -- ages 11, 9 and 7 -- at Ben Gamla, thereby saving a combined $48,000 in annual tuition fees. families are set to take advantage of a groundbreaking option: the nation's first Jewish-oriented charter school. When the school year starts Aug. 20, Schorr's daughter and Barnett's daughter will be among the 430 or so students attending the new Ben Gamla Charter School in this city. The taxpayer-funded institution says it will offer two hours of instruction a day in Jewish-related topics "In other countries we Jews were forced to support religious institutions of the dominant religions," said Rabbi Allan Tuffs of Temple Beth El, a Reform congregation in Hollywood. "The Jewish community has succeeded in America largely thanks to the principle of separation of church and state." of the more than 800 applicants, 37 percent had listed Hebrew as their native language, while 17 percent listed Spanish