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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Don't know about KAMIT, but let's say its goal (like many of charters) is to meet educational needs of a substantial subset of DC students, e.g. AA, low income/aspiring (KIPP), college bound (BASIS, Latin), bilingual (YY).

[b]Can't say that about Hebrew school [/b]-- plus it appeals to a religious subset, unlike all other charters and public schools of any kind. [/quote]

You can, actually.

If you go back and carefully read the proposal for Washington Hebrew, and then carefully read the proposal for Washington Latin, they read almost exactly the same.  No joke, I'll sit here and wait while you do it. The only difference is that the Latin instruction is mandatory but not immersion; the Hebrew instruction is mandatory and taught "using the immersion model."   A rigorous, classic curriculum appeals to a substantial number of DC children.

You're getting hung up on the fact that American Jews study the Hebrew language in advance of bar/bat mitzvah.  That [u]alone[/u] is not enough under the U.S. Constitution to defeat a proposal like this under the 1st amendment.   If there is not even a whiff of religious instruction offered, current case law would suggest this kind of school should pass legal muster.

[/quote]

The fact that the proposals "read" almost exactly the same way doesn't mean they are the same.  It could mean the Hebrew School proposal writers copied the tone of the Latin proposal to make the Hebrew proposal seem appropriate and to avoid raising concerns about religion.

That doesn't mean religious concerns are non-existent or that DC students would benefit from having a Hebrew language focused school.  It means Hebrew school organizers have clever proposal writers -- but apparently not clever enough to avoid divulging their methods.[/quote]

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