Schools Chancellor Joel Klein yesterday indicated that the Department of Education would monitor funding and curriculum at the Arabic language and culture middle school set to open this September near downtown Brooklyn.
The Khalil Gibran Academy, named for a Lebanese-American poet and philosopher, has arched many eyebrows since plans for it were announced in February. Critics have raised concerns about the school's potential to become an instrument of political extremism, even a madrassa.
In response to a question from a City University of New York trustee, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, about whether an Arabic school would pose special concerns, Mr. Klein yesterday said he didn't disagree. "If the school becomes a political school with a political agenda … then you're absolutely right. I won't tolerate that."
The assurances from Mr. Klein, delivered at a lunch in honor of the late educator Colman Genn, appeared to assuage the worries of several of the lunch's attendees, including the questioner. "I was prepared to really make this a very public issue," Mr. Wiesenfeld said. "But I'm willing to be fair and let the chancellor have an opportunity to see if this can be really a moderate Muslim voice."
A colleague of Genn's, Harvey Newman, a senior fellow at the Center for Educational Innovation, said Mr. Klein "gave the language of comfort to those who were the naysayers."
