Kiryas Joel, NJ

Our governor hates it when kids miss class - except for photo-ops. So he rolled on down to Robert Treat Academy (which Al Doblin quite funnily calls NJ's "Lourdes," as all politicians apparently now have to make a pilgrimage there) to announce a whole bunch of new charter schools. Oh, joy...

I'll first point out the SL coverage cites Jeanette Rundquist's awful story on how well charters perform compared to neighborhood schools - a story that neglected to mention charters have far fewer kids who are in poverty, speak English as a second language, or as classified as special education students.

But there's another link: the list of schools approved to become charters. Not very adequate in terms of telling us who's going to be running these schools and how they're proposing to do it, but one did jump out at me:

Shalom: K-8 (240) Englewood, Teaneck – Bergen County
This application presents a plan for an academically rigorous, Hebrew language immersion program.

A Hebrew immersion school. Well, I'm sure all the First Graders there will easily separate the academic study of the Torah as a piece of literature from any religious indoctrination. Just like they do in Kiryas Joel, NY.

Hey, when are they opening an Arabic immersion school?