Last fall, the French-American Charter school opened quietly in South Harlem but a new dual-language school has been causing a stir in a recent Community Board 10 meeting. The Harlem Hebrew charter school has a proposal on the table to open uptown but according to the Daily News, the reaction was all but warm:
LINK. One CB10 member objected on the grounds that had an African-speaking school been proposed, that it too would not be politically correct to support. What's not pointed out in the news article is that the French-American Charter was opened specifically for the many African immigrants that do speak French and live uptown:
LINK. There's also a misconception that African Americans can not be Jewish either but Harlem has a storied Jewish past both black and white:
LINK. This first meeting was also just the proposal phase for the new charter school and a community board vote is still pending (which was not made so clear in the Daily News).
As a principal and teacher for 30 years, I have to say learning a second language of any kind is valuable. Studies show that students who have been in a second language program blow the tops off of the SAT scores over those who don't. Hebrew, French, Swahili or Spanish - they are all valuable in learning. Also valuable are schools with parent support - of which the charter movement is known for.
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