FL's Ben Gamla charter school gets 10 million while former congressman, owner, lives in Israel.

[madfloridian]

Last edited Sun Nov 3, 2013, 12:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Peter Deutsch, talking to reporters about Ben Gamla in 2007 in Fort Lauderdale, lives in Israel. Andrew Uloza / FOR THE MIAMI HERALD

Peter Deutsch, the driving force behind South Florida’s controversial Ben Gamla charter schools, is a six-term former Democratic congressman with a unique status: He lives more than 6,000 miles away in Israel as an expatriate.

Even so, Deutsch’s Ben Gamla schools have racked up hefty public funding — more than $10 million for nearly 1,800 students last school year alone.

In Broward, where the English-Hebrew charter schools have stirred the most controversy, Ben Gamla raked in $7.2 million from the state for five charter schools that operate at two sites, in Hollywood and Plantation. Those schools served more than 1,200 students.

Deutsch unintentionally fanned the flames this summer in comments to a reporter with the Israeli wire service JTA about Ben Gamla’s Hebrew language and Jewish culture studies. The news service reported that Deutsch said 80 percent of Ben Gamla’s $10 million collective budget serves Jewish communal purposes.

“To me, it is literally the best leverage that I’m aware of in Jewish communal stuff in the history of the Jewish people,” Deutsch said. “Jews need to be supportive of this endeavor.”

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/28/3717615/man-behind-ben-gamla.html

Hallandale Beach successfully fought him to prevent a school there.

He is facing another fight in Hollywood, Florida, where he wants a zoning exception to build a 600-student high school on Van Buren Street near City Hall that upset residents say is already choked with traffic from Ben Gamla’s existing, adjacent K-8 school.

Public schools are seeing the money that used to come to them now going to charter schools which often are religious schools. It is breaking the back of the traditional public school.

[madrchsod]

1. where i live they are closing a grade school because we lost 2.4 million in funding

to bad our public school system does`t have a wealthy benefactor...

[madfloridian]

2. They are getting away with defunding public schools because there are too many battles going on.

And to most the destruction of public schools is insignificant compared to shutting down the government.

[okaawhatever]

3. This has to be addressed. Charter schools are going to rob this country of it's public education. Th

charter schools started out being non-religious (Like magnate schools), now that they have some data to use to sell the public on the idea, it's a full court press for publicly funded religious schools. We have to stop the right wing folks.

I also wonder why this guy is living in Israel. It could be for other reasons, but I do know Israel won't extradite a Jewish citizen to another country. Is he planning on getting indicted for something, or just his preference?

[jsr]

4. Most of them are scams.

[madfloridian]

5. Even the good ones are defunding the public schools.

There are some good ones. The ones run by the school districts can be very effective, but the ones in our area do not keep kids who don't keep up. They send them back to the public schools, but the money seldom comes back with them.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. No religion is taught at Ben Gamla

[Really1]

6. So what?

There are so many things wrong with this article I don't know where to begin.

1. So what if Peter Deutsch lives in Israel? He doesn't get any money from the schools and is allowed to live where ever he wants. Its more interesting that he lives elsewhere because he was a congressman, rather than because he founded a school.

2. The school budgets are posted on their websites. EVERY public school gets public funding, and Ben Gamla is a PUBLIC School. Its not like they are bilking the public of 10 million dollars. They are using this money to educate children. And educate them well, as you can see by the school scores.

3. The population is very diverse - it is not a Jewish school. There is no way of knowing the percentage of Jewish children, but it is certainly less than 80%

4. There is NO religion taught in the school. ZERO. This has been thoroughly investigated by the school board on many occasions.

5. Look at the websites bengamlacharter.org, bengamlaplantation.org. Check the photo albums, look at the activities they are doing. Investigate prior to jumping to conclusions and regurgitating other articles that also didn't do their proper research.

My child attends Ben Gamla, and has been there for several years. We didn't come for the Hebrew; we came because it was a small school that provides a warm nurturing experience for my child. We came because he was able to go from Elementary to Middle to High School without having to change schools. We came because he would be swallowed up in our neighborhood public schools and wouldn't get the same individual attention. We came because it was a better alternative, for us.

You see, my child is average. The Broward County school system doesn't have a better alternative for us. He doesn't have any great talents that will get him into a magnet school. He doesn't have super special needs that will get him additional services at public schools. Our neighborhood high school has 2700 students and the squeaky wheels get all the attention. The troubled students and the gifted students. Ben Gamla allows my average child to shine.

Don't you think the real story is why he can't find the same thing in traditional schools?

[Jesus Malverde]

7. Welcome to DU..nt

[gopiscrap]

9. welcome to DU

[Mc Mike]

10. Hi, R1.

The most obvious reason for Deutsch to push for more of these schools is because he will benefit financially from them, even if you believe it's proven that he gets no money from them. That's the same reason why he would give observant Israeli Jews what you feel is an incorrectly hyperinflated estimate of '80% of the budget serves Jewish communal purposes'. He is targeting a certain audience, telling them what you find to be incorrect info, to get them to back the schools, because he benefits from their existence and expansion. The problem for him is his words leaked out beyond the targeted audience.

I don't begrudge your child an opportunity to get a quality education. But it is undeniable that the right wing is opposed to public education, and taking away the money from public education is a way to make it fail. Like education budget cuts, charters are just another mechanism to defund public education. All those 2700 students deserve a quality public education, and an educated populace makes our country stronger. But the attacks on public education are making concerned parents like you pull your child and your school tax dollars associated with your child, out of the system. It's a divide and conquer strategy that benefits the repugs' aim to make the opportunity to be educated only available for wealtier people.

[xchrom]

8. du rec.

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. The article identifies Deutsch as the founder, not the owner of the school

It is a non-profit organization. Are your arguments that hollow that deceit is needed?