Why didn't ya just make it a private school?

Wagner · #1 09-04-2007, 07:33 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/04/ara...ool/index.html

So a school in NY wants to teach Arabic religion and language/culture to 6th graders. Guess there real mistake was attempting to make it a 'general public school' meaning it was paid for with tax dollars, shading that whole separation of church and state. Not sure why it was immediately labeled as "terrorist" by some...

Don't we have freedom of religion here?

pss...ACLU..jump in at any time...

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Eric5273 · #2 09-04-2007, 10:46 PM

The article doesn't make clear if students of Arabic background are the majority who attend. But making the school private is not always the best solution. Here is an example of why:

One of my employees lives up in Monroe NY (about an hour north of NYC). In her area, there is a very large population of Hasidic Jewish people. Rather than these people having to send their kids to private schools -- meaning the town would only send about half of their kids to public schools, the local school district decided a better solution would be to have 2 sets of public schools, one teaching the very religious Jewish courses, and one regular. It's not as if they need extra schools to accomplish this as the school district has enough students that it would need at least 2 high schools, 2 middle schools, etc. She said this solution has worked out very well.

On the other hand, here in Rockland County, in the East Ramapo school district, we have a similar situation (very high Hasidic Jewish population).

However, here no such solution has been implemented. So about 60% of kids attend the private Yashiva schools. As a result, whenever there is any kind of vote for the budget for the local school district, the Hasidic community mobilize the vote against the budget, and it is always voted down. The end result is that the public schools in this district have been left without the budget for anything other than reading, math, and science courses. All kinds of sports programs, arts, music, and after school programs have either been cancelled or have to do their own fund raising. When I attended high school at one of the high schools in this district about 15-20 years ago, my high school was ranked among the top 1% in New York State. Today my old high school is awful, and probably a place you would go if you wanted to buy a gun or some drugs. They no longer offer Advanced Placement courses either as any parents with gifted kids surely would not send them there.

I think keeping everything under the public school umbrella is a better idea in the long run.

Wagner · #3 09-05-2007, 05:03 AM

Eric, not for their goal of teaching with emphasis on religion. That shouldn't be a tax paid school IMO. I'm VERY surprised that the first paragraph is true and would love a link to it (not a wiki brother).

And shame on your populace for letting your public school budget be shot down. Sounds a lot like the way we handle Cuba, small LOUD group makes all the noise, everyone else just follows suit.

rebound · #4 09-05-2007, 08:39 AM

I read an article on this type of thing last week. This school isn't the only one, only the latest:

WSJ Link

Quote:

When the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy opened four years ago in suburban Minneapolis, the school was a bold experiment and its survival was in question. There was the scramble to attract students that any charter school faces, but Tarek ibn Ziyad had the additional worry of a constitutional challenge, given the school's sponsorship by a nonprofit called Islamic Relief and the curriculum's emphasis on Muslim culture and the Arabic language.

The school has not only survived but thrived, and there are plans for local expansion. Perhaps the surest sign that the experiment worked came last week, when a new charter school opened up thousands of miles away in Hollywood, Fla.--founded by Jewish parents, Ben Gamla Charter School has kosher food in the cafeteria and Hebrew posters in the classrooms. In the planning of the Florida school, Tarek ibn Ziyad's experience was taken into account.

Remember - they aren't "religious" schools, they're "cultural" schools.

Wagner · #5 09-05-2007, 09:15 AM

I have no problems with a religious school, but keep it private then.

Eric5273 · #6 09-05-2007, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wagner

And shame on your populace for letting your public school budget be shot down.

The Hasidic Jews are not a small group in the town I'm talking about. They make up more than half of the population. So when they mobilize and vote, they get what they want.

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