We are now at a point where the typical Orthodox Jewish family cannot afford to pay for the actual cost of educating their children Jewishly. Even upper middle class families with 5 children whose earnings have broken the 6 figure barrier cannot afford to pay a typical $20,000 (after tax) per child tuition. It would leave them with no income at all and lots of debt. And many parents have more children and even less income.
Most parents get scholarships. Leaving the schools to make up the difference. As costs increase, the ability of parents to pay more generally does not rise proportionally and deficits increase. At some point fundraising that difference will become impossible. All while parents are already struggling to pay even their reduced tuition bills. This is an untenable situation that was passionately discussed in a recent issue of Mishpacha Magazine and carried forward in subsequent issues.
None of this is new. I have discussed it all before many
times. But there are solutions. One of which I suggested a long time ago has gained
some currency. As noted here. More about
that later.
One of the silver linings of the war in Gaza and the increased antisemitism borne of it is an increased interest by secular Jews in Judaism. Since October 7th there has been an increase in enrollment at Jewish religious schools. That has likely increased deficits even more. No religious school worthy of the name will deny a child a Jewish education for lack of parents affording the tuition.
How do we get out of this mess? How do we get to the point where tuition becomes affordable and school budgets are being met?
Jewish Philanthropy has a radical idea which goes beyond affordability. How about free tuition?
I don’t know that we will ever achieve that. But I think with
the right combination of sources we can come close.
First there ought to be a concerted and unified effort by
all Jewish Federations in the US to push for voucher programs in every state. It has worked in
every state where it has been tried. Parents love it. All parents, not just parents of parochial school children.
Vouchers allow them to send their children to the school of their choice
using taxpayer money they all paid into the system but – until vouchers –
were made available only to benefit public school parents.
That will relieve some of the financial burden of parochial
school parents. But not all of it. However, there is another important component: Jewish philanthropy. As
noted:
Jewish philanthropists gave the two largest gifts of the year: Ruth Gottesman’s $1 billion gift to Albert Einstein Medical School, and Michael Bloomberg’s similar contribution to Johns Hopkins Medical School, which made both institutions tuition-free for medical students.
Of course there are not enough Jewish billionaires to endow
all religious Jewish schools to make them tuition free. But imagine if similar endowments
would be made to a superfund that would distribute its earnings to all the schools.
There is a lot of money available among Jewish
philanthropists that – if donated to Jewish education would go a long way to relieving
the excessive burdens faced by all parochial schools - and parents. How much money are we talking about? As noted in the article - over the next 25 years Jews are projected to give $13 trillion
to charity.
The problem is that Jewish philanthropists are not donating
to Jewish causes:
Half of America’s 25 most generous philanthropists are Jewish, but few donate significantly to Jewish causes; and nearly 90% of money given by Jews goes outside the Jewish community.
This is what has to change. Imagine the possibilities if tuition to state of the art religious schools with top teachers would be affordable to the point where a middle class Jewish family wouldn’t have to struggle to pay for it. Imagine the ability of religious schools to do what religious schools in the UK do:
In the U.K., for instance, where government subsidies support private education, 66% of Jewish children attend Jewish schools
What about Orthodox Jews? I have been told that there 12 or 13 Orthodox Jewish billionaires. And many more that are close to it. We can start an endowment fund with mega donations from them.
And then there is the rest of us. Do Orthodox Jews have the ability to raise many millions of dollars? You betcha. That actually happened a short while ago where over $75 million was raised almost instantly to support Yeshivas and Kollelim in Israel. The money is there. If we want to save quality Jewish education for the masses we need to start somewhere. Doing it this way is a good way to start. And doing it now is as good a time as any to start.
