Wednesday, December 13, 2006

...and in the news this week...

Brooklyn has more upmarket preschoolers than it can handle, reports New York Magazine in "The Preschooler Glut:"

The brownstone-Brooklyn baby boom is causing a sort of educational crisis in the once easygoing borough, leading parents to wonder: When did this turn into Manhattan? A flood of would-be students has forced the area’s premier preschools (where tuition is five figures) to close their application season as much as three months early.

The Conservative movement's Solomon Schechter day schools are considering changing their bylaws to admit the children of non-Jewish mothers, reports this JTA article. More detailed analysis is offered by the Baltimore Jewish Times. Sue Fishkoff asks in her a follow-up article:

If Solomon Schechter day schools begin to admit children of non-Jewish mothers, will that draw students away from Reform or community day schools? [...] Zena Sulkes, day school specialist for the Union of Reform Judaism, said she does not anticipate an exodus from the 19 schools affiliated with the Progressive Association of Reform Day Schools. Since Schechter schools already quietly admit non-halachically Jewish children, those families looking for a Schechter education are already going there, she suggested. Others won’t be tempted.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What message is SSDS sending to children and families when they start opening up their admissions policy? The point of sending your kids to a Jewish school is to have them socialize with other Jewish kids in the hopes of them married other Jewish kids. What does SSDS stand for anymore? This is very sad.