Solomon Schechters' in trouble from Charters?

Will Conservative Day Schools Survive?: As Charter Schools Take Off, Solomo=
n
Schechters Tremble
http://www.forward.com/articles/13533/
By Jennifer Siegel
Thu. Jun 05, 2008

If a newly proposed Hebrew-language charter school opens in Brooklyn, its
longest shadow may be cast on a nearby school that is, in some respects,
already the borough's Little Engine That Could.

Several years ago, the East Midwood Hebrew Day School =97 a kindergarten
through eighth grade academy that is Brooklyn's only Conservative day schoo=
l
=97 was hanging by a thread, with an enrollment that had dropped to just 99
students from a peak of more than 400. But buoyed by the arrival of a new
principal, the school has recently updated its curriculum and facilities an=
d
launched an aggressive new outreach program. Administrators now expect to
welcome more than 180 children in September, some of them drawn from south
Brooklyn's Israeli and Russian communities.

Now, with a Hebrew-centered public school being proposed for the same area =
=97
District 22 in south Brooklyn =97 some Jewish observers are worried about t=
he
impact of the new project. While Hebrew charter schools backers, including
mega-philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, view them as a powerful new tool fo=
r
strengthening Jewish identity, others worry that they could pose a unique
competitive challenge for existing Conservative day schools, some of which
are already struggling to retain students.

"Whatever the justification for charter schools, Brooklyn isn't the place
for one," said Marvin Schick, a senior educational consultant for the
philanthropic organization Avi Chai Foundation, which promotes Jewish
education and identity. "If Michael Steinhardt or others want to establish
charter schools, they should go [to places] where the Conservative movement
has already downsized."

Seen in this light, the burgeoning charter school movement could turn out t=
o
be still another drag for the Conservative movement's schools, which in som=
e
areas are finding themselves outflanked by Orthodox schools on the right,
and pluralistic community day schools on the left. While the total number o=
f
students in Conservative day schools has dropped in recent years, other
segments of the day school population have grown.

Overall, 205,000 students ages 4 and up attended Jewish day schools during
the 2003-2004 school year, with a total enrollment increase of 11% over the
1998-1999 academic year, according to a study conducted by Avi Chai. At the
same time, enrollment at Conservative day schools has declined, with nearly
17,829 students during the 2006-2007 academic year, as compared with 20,386
in 2000-2001 =97 a drop of more than 12%. (Reform day schools, attended by
about 5,000 students across the country, have held their numbers steady in
recent years.)

According to Elaine Cohen, associate director of the Solomon Schechter Day
School Association, the umbrella organization for Conservative movement
schools, more than half of the recent enrollment dip can be attributed to
the fact that at least six academies =97 including those in Providence, R.I=
.;
Morris County, N.J., and Worcester, Mass.=97 have in recent years left the
Conservative movement and transformed themselves into Jewish community day
schools. Unlike Conservative day schools, community day schools have no
barriers to enrollment based on the faith of the parents or on religious
practices in the home.

To be sure, the future of Conservative day schools is bright in many areas.
Conservative day schools are flourishing in many parts of the country, with
more than a dozen undertaking building projects in recent years, and new
schools opening in Las Vegas and in Boca Raton, Fla. Still, out of the
roughly 60 schools that belong to the Conservative movement, as many as a
dozen may be struggling, according to Schick. The painfully sudden closure
of the Metropolitan Schechter High School in Teaneck, N.J., in August 2007,
has underscored the difficulties that continue to plague schools in the
country's biggest day school catchment area, the New York metro region,
where tuitions are especially high and competition for communal dollars is
often fierce.

Now, competition for students and dollars is likely to grow only more
intense, as Steinhardt and others attempt to expand the Hebrew charter
movement from the seed of one currently existing school, the one-year old
Ben Gamla Charter School in Hollywood, Fla., into an eventual nationwide
network.

Alese Gingold, a 30-year veteran of the New York City public school system
who took the reins of the East Midwood Hebrew Day two years ago, declined t=
o
comment on the possibility of a Hebrew-focused public school opening a
stone's throw away from her school.

But Gingold said the high cost of tuition is her biggest barrier to
enrolling more children, especially within a community more prone to view a
day school education as a positive choice than as a necessity.

"I would just like a major donor to adopt us," Gingold told the Forward.
"One of the biggest challenges today is the economy, and very often when
people are Conservative Jews, they think they can get by with a public
school."