In a quiet office in the Capital building in Albany, NY, Maury Litwack, OU Advocacy’s Director of State Political Affairs and Outreach, gave three members of Brooklyn’s Jewish community a quick run-down on the possibilities of government assistance in the Jewish tuition crisis.
“This is the most critical time for Jewish education,” Litwack explained, since the state budget will be closed by April 1st. Last year, an additional $14 million was earmarked for private and parochial schools. This year, OU Advocacy-Teach NYS is working to delivery significantly more. If the items in the proposed budget that potentially include private schools pass—including the Education Investment Incentives Act and the Smart Schools Bond Referendum—Jewish day schools could receive hundreds of millions of dollars.