October 28, 2005

Orthodox Union Jewish Action Magazine Focuses on Tuition Crisis in Jewish Schools

With the average annual Jewish day school tuition amounting to $11,000 per child, some families are paying tuition bills higher than their mortgages. The fall issue of Jewish Action, the magazine of the Orthodox Union, features a series of in-depth articles exploring the timely topic of ever-escalating tuition costs in Jewish schools.

In his overview of the problem, Yossi Prager, Executive Director-North America of the AVI CHAI Foundation, argues that what is needed is “a new way of thinking about our collective and individual responsibilities for day school financing.” He asserts that education should be viewed as a communal responsibility. “In the Jewish worldview, Jewish education is not a consumer good, like detergent; it’s a communal responsibility.”

Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg, dean of Torah Academy in Minneapolis, describes his school’s innovative “voucher plan,” which enables the school to attract new students formerly attending public school. The plan grants a child from a public or non-Jewish private school an automatic reduction of $5,000 in tuition costs for the first year, decreasing by $1,000 over the next four years.

In the more standard definition of “vouchers,” which involves the controversial issue of government financial support for religious schools, the Orthodox Union is deeply involved in seeking such support for Jewish education. Rabbi Shlomo Levin writes about how the governmental voucher program is impacting the Jewish day school in Milwaukee by paying $6,000 per student annually; in a companion piece, “Public Funding for Non-Public Schools,” Nathan J. Diament, Washington-based Director of the OU’s Institute for Public Affairs, provides insights on how schools may obtain other forms of governmental assistance, aside from vouchers. He declares, “There are significant opportunities in this realm.”

Rob Toren, grants director at the Samis Foundation in Seattle, shares advice about raising and giving away money for Jewish education. According to Mr. Toren, so many day schools “operate on a survival basis.” He declares, “cash reserves, endowments, capital reserves, contingency funds—all norms of good non-profit management—hardly exist.” Among the advice Mr. Toren offers is that schools attain financial stability by implementing planned giving programs and endowments, and strengthening the lay-professional partnership.

Rabbi Micah Greenland, Regional Director of the Greater Midwest Region of the OU’s National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), describes various initiatives taking place in Chicago, all of which, according to Rabbi Greenland, “should be replicated in other cities.” The initiatives include George Hanus’ “Operation Jewish Education/The Five Percent Answer”; Dr. Yosef Walder’s “Kehilla Jewish Education Fund,” and the creation of federation-sponsored endowment programs for schools.

As up-to-date as the current headlines, Jewish Action includes an article by day school parents Jonathan Isler and Kenny Gluck, who introduced the controversial “Lawrence Proposal” in Long Island, New York’s upscale Five Towns communities, as a way to reduce tuition costs. The Lawrence plan involves the public school district financing the local yeshivas’ secular studies department, in which public school teachers would teach yeshiva students in their building, at taxpayer expense. The proposal has produced a tremendous amount of coverage in the local media.

As this information-packed issue of Jewish Action reaches its audience, the Orthodox Union celebrates its month-long Na’Im (North American Inclusion Month) program, urging its synagogues in the United States and Canada to become more welcoming of people with disabilities. Writer Bayla Sheva Brenner depicts how synagogues have stepped up to the plate in helping to make Jews with disabilities feel more included in the community.

The issue includes articles on traveling in Israel, kosher news and recipes, book reviews and more.

For a copy of Jewish Action, contact Stephen Steiner, OU Director of Public Relations, at steiners@ou.org, or 212-613-8318.

Jewish Action Magazine

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The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of North America and beyond, is a world leader in community and synagogue services, adult education, youth work through NCSY, political action through the IPA, and advocacy for persons with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way. Its kosher supervision label, the , is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 409,000 products manufactured in 83 countries around the globe.

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