The Issue of Day School Tuition… and Some Potential Solutions 

The issue of the rising cost of day school education has been simmering for some time, a focus of discussion and study by school administrators, rabbis, lay leaders and Jewish philanthropies across the country. This past year, the issue came to a full boil, as the cries of families pushed to their financial limits by tuitions reached a crescendo, and lay and rabbinic leadership in Jewish communities nationwide placed the issue of crushing day school tuition bills at the top of their agendas.

Families with three or four day school tuitions to pay, in addition to mortgages, real estate taxes and other day-to-day expenses are feeling trapped. Funding their children’s school tuitions consumes their budgets, precluding allocations for minor luxuries and savings plans for college, and restricting their ability to donate as much as they might like to Jewish causes, such as Israel-based charities.

At the same time, the current state of world affairs, combined with the challenges facing Jewish communities, indicates that a future generation of well-educated, spiritually-committed individuals with leadership potential is exactly what is required to protect and strengthen Jewish communities here and in Israel.

Yossi Prager, Director of the Avi Chai Foundation of North America recently noted that, “An overwhelming body of data links day school education to subsequent Jewish involvement, even after factoring out home life.” Richard Joel, President of Yeshiva University, concurs with this assessment, pointing out that, “There is substantive and consistent research indicating that a rigorous Jewish day school education is the best guarantor of the Jewish future. Day schools must remain a priority so that our youth will continue to be prepared to lead with Jewish ideas and ideals in our communities in the Diaspora and our homeland of Israel.”

Extensive work by community leaders who are attempting to make day schools more affordable without reversing the years of progress in day school education, confirms that there is no “magic bullet” for solving this pressing issue. However, through the efforts of dedicated Jewish leadership, strides have been made toward a new model for funding to day schools.

“Whether it is schools improving the way they make decisions and exploring cost-cutting strategies together, or communities expanding the pool of supporters to provide more emergency aid, the creative responses from day school and community leaders to the challenging economic environment demonstrates how critical Jewish day school education is to our Jewish futures,” according to Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) Executive Director Rabbi Josh Elkin. Among the proposals on the table are:
• Kehilla Funds to raise money for day schools on a communal basis, instead of relying on the “user fee” model that places the full obligation on parents of school-age children.
• Collaborative efforts among schools to pare down costs by cooperating on purchasing, staff expenditures and programming, and
• Efforts to access greater public funding through charter schools, tax deductions and voucher programs.

Below, are some of the major initiatives underway.

Kehilla Funds
In September 2004, a core group of approximately 40 members launched a program in Chicago to establish a communal fund for area day schools. Under the auspices of the Jewish Kehilla Jewish Education Fund (JKEF), the fund has grown to approximately 1150 contributing members and raises $600,000 annually for nine day schools, serving approximately 2,400 students. The guiding philosophy of the fund is that education is a communal responsibility, similar to other communal services like a mikvah. All community members, young and old, single or married, whether they have children in the system or not, are urged to contribute to the best of their ability. The system encourages lesser payments on a recurring basis, rather than one-time donations, to sustain a continuing flow of funds to the schools.

A kehilla fund was launched this past spring in Northern New Jersey. At the time this article went to press, more than 25 synagogues in Northern New Jersey were actively working to raise funds for seven area day schools, servicing more than 3,000 students. The fund, known as Northern New Jersey Kehillot Investing in Day School Education (NNJKIDS) is promoted on a website of the same name, as well as through the outreach efforts of rabbis and lay leaders.

Community funds have already been implemented in some communities and more are planning to launch kehilla funds in the future. Metro West in New Jersey already has a well-established community fund to promote day school affordability at three day schools. Meanwhile, a plan for a kehilla fund in the Five Towns area of Long Island, New York is in the works.

School Choice (vouchers)
While this does not seem to be the most auspicious time for the school choice movement -- with Congress’ recent decision to discontinue the school choice program in Washington, D.C. -- this option, nevertheless, represents the greatest potential to make day school tuitions more affordable for all families. The school choice movement allocates to families a set amount per child, which they can use toward tuition at a private school in lieu of sending their children to public schools.

In 1995, the Ohio legislature approved a plan to implement the first publicly funded voucher plan in Cleveland, which would also allow funds to go toward tuition at religious schools. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of this program. Approximately 6,300 students were enrolled in the program in the 2006-07 school year, allocating vouchers worth up to $3,450 per student.

Congress passed the D.C. School Choice Incentive Act of 2003, making Washington, D.C., the first federally-funded voucher initiative in the country and the only one to be administered by the U.S. Department of Education. The $14 million D.C. voucher initiative represented a five-year scholarship program to allow low-income District of Columbia children to receive scholarships worth up to $7,500 to attend private and parochial schools. The program reached its capacity of 1,705 students (attending 59 different schools) in 2005-06 before the Obama administration announced that no new scholarships would be awarded for the upcoming year.

Charter Schools
While some have looked to charter schools as a potential answer to the day school tuition crisis, charter schools are not a replacement for day schools. The Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution -- requiring separation of church and state -- prohibits charter schools from teaching or endorsing religion.

Charter schools have been set up across the country to cater to ethnic groups, with a focus on language immersion, including French, Spanish, Arabic and recently, Hebrew. The Ben Gamla charter school in Florida opened in 2007, and a Hebrew language charter school in Brooklyn is scheduled to open this fall, backed by philanthropist Michael Steinhardt.

To demonstrate the difficulty in drawing lines between Hebrew language and religious education, 48 hours after the Ben Gamla school opened, the Broward County Board of Education ordered it to cease teaching Hebrew, while it investigated some potential religious references in the school’s curriculum. The issue was resolved and Hebrew education restored, but this incident demonstrates how closely the local authorities will be monitoring the school to assure that no hint of religion surfaces in its curriculum.

Cost-Cutting Initiatives
In September 2008, the Avi Chai Foundation of North America announced funding for educational grants to encourage new cooperative ventures among day schools, whether at the corporate/administrative level or in the core educational program.

Avi Chai received more than 53 applications from schools across North America, and awarded six grants, totaling $540,000 dollars in funding over the next two years. The grant recipients included day schools in Texas, Missouri, Ontario, Florida, New Jersey and Ohio. The proposals focused on plans for schools to join together to merge and integrate back office operations, to pool resources to create a new joint middle-school, to share a technology integration specialist and to establish a collaborative alumni network for fundraising.

The current economic pressures on day school families have spawned an unprecedented level of cooperation between schools seeking to trim budgets and make day school education more affordable. The seven schools in Northern New Jersey that have joined to launch NNJKIDS have an active sub-committee, exploring cost-sharing initiatives.

If there is a silver lining in this crisis, it is the unprecedented dialogue that is taking place between day schools, something that Harry Bloom, the newly-appointed Director of Planning and Performance Improvement Institute for University-School Partnership at Yeshiva University, observed at a recent conference in Far Rockaway. According to Bloom, 16 schools from across the denominational spectrum met in one room to discuss solutions to the affordability crisis.

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