Reply To: yeshiva or public school?

I am unfamiliar with the term “Charter Schools”. Can someone please explain. In the province that I live in, the public school system has several bilingual schools. This began because many parents wanted their children to be completely bilingual in both English and French as they are both official languages in Canada. You cannot get a job with the federal government without being bilingual – none. Even to be a tour guide (great summer job for teenagers) at the Mint, you need French. Eventually, other cultural groups asked the government to include their cultures in separate bilingual schools, so what happened is that there are English/Ukrainian (we have a huge Ukrainian population here)schools and other bilingual schools (can’t remember what else). Eventually, a group of parents lobbied for English/Hebrew bilingual schools and now there are two of them. They are not allowed to teach “religous” subjects, but they can teach cultural subjects. These Eng/Heb schools are held in larger facilities and the children are taught several of their subjects in Hebrew. They put on a Chanukah concert for the rest of the school (and the Bubbies and Zadies) and a model seder, etc. They learn about all of the holidays. I am unsure how they can separate the studies of the holidays to just teach culture, but apparently they are able to do it. I do know that most of the parents are thrilled with how the children are taught – and at no cost. Other than Eng/French, the other bilingual schools only go from K-6. Many of the kids in the Hebrew program go from public school to the Jewish community high school and do very well there. Many of the kids also get extra schooling or tutoring during their elementary years to learn more religious studies.