Charters now make up 6.2 percent of public schools Watch video
Sarit Bercovici, a long-term Kindergarten substitute teacher work with students at Hatikvah International Academy Charter School during class. The school featuring Hebrew language immersion, is one of a controversial type of new charter school. EAST BRUNSWICK — One of the state’s newest public schools holds class in a leased Sunday School building in East Brunswick. Classrooms are furnished with brightly colored carpets, and the walls are decorated with letters of the alphabet.
But this elementary school is different from most: While the English alphabet stretches across one side of a first-grade classroom, the Hebrew alphabet is on the other.
Hatikvah International Academy is one of 73 charter schools in New Jersey, a number that will increase to about 100 in September as Gov. Chris Christie seizes on the independent and publicly funded schools as a key tool in education reform.
Billed as a way to improve student achievement by offering school choice, charter schools are perhaps best known as an option in failing urban districts. But the battles are also intensifying in suburban communities where charters focused on areas such as foreign languages or the environment are opening their doors.
Supporters say the charters provide a valuable option to one-size-fits-all education. But critics from Highland Park to Princeton question why public dollars should fund them and whether they belong in well-performing districts.
Rebecca Cox, president of the Princeton Regional Schools Board of Education, said her board has opposed charter schools for years. Board officials wrote letters to the state commissioner of education opposing them, testified before the Legislature against them, and even attended a nearby town zoning board meeting, prepared to oppose the location of a charter school that would also serve Princeton students.
Cox, earlier this year, urged the Assembly Education Committee to oppose "expensive boutique charter schools."
"There is a big difference between establishing a charter because students are failing, and establishing one because Hebrew, Mandarin or extensive recycling isn’t part of every grade’s curriculum," she said.
FUNDING
The big issue is money. Charter school students receive 90 percent of the per-pupil funding that goes to public schools. Cox said that means Princeton must send $4.7 million to the Princeton Charter School next year, plus $256,000 to the new Princeton International Academy Charter School.
Hatikvah is controversial in its home district, too. East Brunswick appealed the school’s approval, charging it did not enroll enough East Brunswick students. East Brunswick Deputy Superintendent Evelyn Ogden said the appeal is still pending.
Dan Gerstein, a spokeman for Hatikvah and the nonprofit Hebrew Charter School Center, said the best reason to support charters is "because there’s a demand."
"There’s a central part of the charter school model that some people don’t appreciate. They see charter schools as alternatives to bad public schools in inner cities," he said. "The charter school model was there to spur innovation in public education."
Among charter schools operating, or about to open, in New Jersey:
• Hatikvah International Academy, the state’s first dual-language Hebrew academy, opened in September in East Brunswick. More than 100 children attend.
• Shalom Academy Charter School was approved to provide an "academically rigorous Hebrew language immersion program" in Englewood and Teaneck.
• Princeton International Academy Charter School, a Mandarin Chinese dual language immersion school, is due to open in the fall for 170 students from Princeton, West Windsor-Plainsboro and South Brunswick.
• Ridge and Valley Charter School. Founded a decade ago in Blairstown, it promotes project-based learning, using the outdoors to teach principles of math and other lessons.
New Jersey opened its first charter schools in 1997. Nationally, the number of charters increased 6.2 percent in 2009-10, to 4,919, or 5.1 percent of all public schools, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Todd Ziebarth, vice president for state advocacy at the National Alliance, said that while environmental schools have existed for some time, he’s seen an increase in "themed" charters such as dual language schools. Because the number of charters is rising in New Jersey, after being stagnant, he said the state may see more varied schools on the way.
"It is clear that different kids learn better in different environments," he said.
At Hatikvah Academy, each class has two teachers — one speaks English and one Hebrew. Students take a Hebrew class daily and learn about world and Israeli culture — but not Judaism or any religion, said director Naomi Drewitz.
The school is a mix of students. Boys in yarmulkes sit near African-American girls in braids. Some children have Asian or Indian backgrounds.
"We are not a school for one type of child," Drewitz said. She said Judaism is "absolutely not" taught: "We are not allowed. We are a public school."
Hatikvah’s parent-teacher organization president, Whitney Rockwell, is a Mormon who at first dismissed it as "a Jewish school." But she now sends her daughter Ashleigh, 8, and son Matthew, 6, there.
"At holiday time, they talked about Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali and Christmas. It’s such a diverse group of kids who go there," she said. "I love the school."
'THEMED' CHARTERS
Parker Block, a co-founder and spokesman of Princeton International Academy Charter, said his school has 250 applicants for 170 slots expected to open in September. He said parents there want more innovative and rigorous programs, along with the benefits of dual language immersion. Opposition by Princeton officials cost the school a year’s delay in opening, and he said there is concern the public district may try the same tactics again.
The Stanford University Center for Research on Education Outcomes has not specifically studied "themed" charter schools, but its director said the programs are valuable. "We would expect themed schools to be higher quality because there is focused attention on curriculum and instruction," said Center Director Margaret Raymond.
Joseph DePierro, dean of the College of Education and Human Services at Seton Hall University, questioned the growth of charters that "target very specific population groups."
"I think we have to be careful that in the future, that kind of separation doesn’t lead to a form of segregation," he said.
DePierro said he had not visited Hatikvah or reviewed its curriculum, but he cautioned that some schools may "walk a fine line with separation of church and state."
"How do you separate Hebrew culture from Judaism? I think that might be tough to do," he said.
Gerstein said the Hebrew Charter School Center, which provided $334,500 in grant funds to Hatikvah, was created by Jewish philanthropists but fosters teaching of the Hebrew language, not Judaism. "Hebrew is a language that is like any other language spoken in the United States. It just so happens that it’s also the language of religion," he said.
Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf said "encouraging a portfolio of great public schools options is a worthy goal."
Perhaps the newest charter school battle is brewing in Highland Park, where a high school Hebrew academy, Tikun Olam, proposed to serve Highland Park, Edison and New Brunswick was denied approval by the state Department of Education twice, the second time because of a weakness in the application’s educational program area, a DOE spokeswoman said.
Officials said they expect the applicants to reapply despite opposition from the local school board.
"I don’t think public education can sustain these special interests," said Highland Park Board President Wendy Saiff. "If you want your child to learn Hebrew, find a way to pay for it not on the public dime."
That said, Highland Park is considering offering Hebrew language classes in its schools in hopes that would convince parents to keep their children enrolled in the public schools.
By Jeanette Rundquist and Jessica Calefati/The Star-Ledger