{"id":40268,"date":"2015-06-17T12:16:52","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T17:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=40268"},"modified":"2015-06-17T12:16:52","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T17:16:52","slug":"supporting-choice-in-education-is-a-jewish-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/education\/supporting-choice-in-education-is-a-jewish-value\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Choice in Education Is A Jewish Value"},"content":{"rendered":"

Education has always been a Jewish priority.<\/p>\n

The Talmud exhorts us to remember favorably Yehoshua ben Gamla, \u201cfor were it not for\u00a0him, the Torah would have been forgotten by Israel.\u201d Concerned that the children of poor\u00a0families\u2014particularly orphans\u2014did not have access to a quality Torah education, ben\u00a0Gamla mandated that every Jewish community hire teachers to educate every child from\u00a0the age of six or seven on up. For this, the sages credited ben Gamla with saving Judaism\u00a0itself.<\/p>\n

Since then, universal access to education has been a central Jewish value.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten\u00a0invoked<\/a> Jewish values in calling on the contemporary Jewish community both to support\u00a0district schooling and to oppose educational choice initiatives, such as Governor\u00a0Cuomo\u2019s proposed Parental Choice in Education Act. However, she provides no evidence\u00a0to support her second claim. Indeed, a fair reading of the Jewish tradition reveals strong\u00a0support for educational choice.<\/p>\n

Weingarten is right that Jews should be at the forefront of \u201cfighting for educational\u00a0opportunity and social justice.\u201d That\u2019s exactly why prominent Jewish organizations like\u00a0the UJA-Federation, the Orthodox Union, and Agudath Israel support Governor Cuomo\u2019s\u00a0proposal, which would grant tax credits to donors to nonprofit scholarship organizations\u00a0that help primarily low- and middle-income families enroll their children in the schools\u00a0of their choice. Educational opportunity entails empowering parents to select the school\u00a0that works best for their children\u2014not just the school they\u2019re assigned based on where\u00a0they can afford to live.<\/p>\n

The Jewish tradition aims to provide every child with the best possible education,\u00a0but\u2014so long as the teachers are knowledgeable and of good character\u2014it is not\u00a0particular about who does the educating. On the very page following Yehoshua ben\u00a0Gamla\u2019s vision, the Talmud rules that an established teacher could not prevent a\u00a0newcomer from teaching in the vicinity, even if all he loses all his students to the new\u00a0teacher. Rather, the Talmud states: kinat soferim tarbeh chokhmah (\u201cjealousy among the\u00a0scholars increases wisdom\u201d).<\/p>\n

Two aspects of this ruling are worth highlighting. First, the sages\u2019 primary concern was\u00a0that students receive the best possible education, even at the potential expense of a\u00a0teacher\u2019s livelihood. In the realm of education, the needs of students came before the\u00a0needs of adults.<\/p>\n

Second, the sages recognized that educational choice is beneficial for students. When\u00a0parents have options, each teacher is motivated to perform as well as possible. The sages\u00a0saw choice and competition as stronger guarantors of educational quality than the good\u00a0will of the teachers alone.<\/p>\n

A substantial body of evidence confirms the sages\u2019 insight. In 11 of 12 random-\u00a0assignment studies\u2014the\u00a0gold standard\u00a0of social science research\u2014educational choice\u00a0programs were found to produce positive outcomes for scholarship recipients, including\u00a0improved academic performance, higher high school graduation rates, and greater college\u00a0matriculation. One study found no statistically discernable impact and none found harm.<\/p>\n

For low-income students, educational choice can be a pathway out of poverty. For\u00a0example, a recent study by researchers at Harvard University and the Brookings\u00a0Institution found that black students participating in a pilot scholarship program in New\u00a0York City were 24 percent more likely to enroll in four-year college, greatly improving\u00a0their expected future income.<\/p>\n

Crucially, educational choice policies do not merely benefit the few at the expense of the\u00a0many. In 22 of 23\u00a0empirical studies,\u00a0researchers found that educational choice programs\u00a0spurred modest but statistically significant gains in the performance of students who\u00a0remained at their assigned district schools. Once again, only one study found no\u00a0discernable impact and none found harm.<\/p>\n

These findings provide compelling evidence the sages were correct:\u00a0kinat soferim tarbeh\u00a0chokhmah. In modern parlance: competition among education providers improves student\u00a0outcomes.<\/p>\n

Weingarten also claimed that district schools are \u201csociety\u2019s way to\u2026 promote our\u00a0pluralism\u201d and \u201cthe vehicle through which we could help all children achieve their\u00a0dreams.\u201d However, for families who are systematically excluded from the district school\u00a0system, these words ring hollow.<\/p>\n

The unfortunate reality is that district schools are designed to cater to the majority, not\u00a0minority groups, like Orthodox Jews, who have a different vision of education. Although\u00a0these taxpayers contribute to the more than $20,000 spent per pupil at New York\u2019s\u00a0district schools\u2014and save their districts millions of dollars more\u2014their children do not\u00a0benefit. Governor Cuomo\u2019s proposal would help to remedy this injustice.<\/p>\n

A pluralistic society should have an education system that respects and reflects that\u00a0pluralism. Educational choice policies do just that by empowering families to choose\u00a0schools that align with their values.<\/p>\n

Weingarten concludes that when \u201cwe invest in the right of every child to achieve his or\u00a0her dreams, every one of us benefits.\u201d That\u2019s absolutely right\u2014no matter what type of\u00a0school the child attends.<\/p>\n

Jason Bedrick is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute\u2019s Center for Educational Freedom\u00a0and a graduate of the Rabbinical College of America.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Education has always been a Jewish priority. The Talmud exhorts us to remember favorably Yehoshua ben Gamla, \u201cfor were it not for\u00a0him, the Torah would have been forgotten by Israel.\u201d Concerned that the children of poor\u00a0families\u2014particularly orphans\u2014did not have access to a quality Torah education, ben\u00a0Gamla mandated that every Jewish community hire teachers to educate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133061,"featured_media":40272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"yoast_head":"\nSupporting Choice in Education Is A Jewish Value - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/education\/supporting-choice-in-education-is-a-jewish-value\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supporting Choice in Education Is A Jewish Value - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Education has always been a Jewish priority. The Talmud exhorts us to remember favorably Yehoshua ben Gamla, \u201cfor were it not for\u00a0him, the Torah would have been forgotten by Israel.\u201d Concerned that the children of poor\u00a0families\u2014particularly orphans\u2014did not have access to a quality Torah education, ben\u00a0Gamla mandated that every Jewish community hire teachers to educate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/education\/supporting-choice-in-education-is-a-jewish-value\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-17T17:16:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/educationfi.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"340\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"190\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jason Bedrick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jason Bedrick\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/education\/supporting-choice-in-education-is-a-jewish-value\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/education\/supporting-choice-in-education-is-a-jewish-value\/\",\"name\":\"Supporting Choice in Education Is A Jewish Value - OU Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/education\/supporting-choice-in-education-is-a-jewish-value\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/education\/supporting-choice-in-education-is-a-jewish-value\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/educationfi.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-17T17:16:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/e10ac43745329eb01cce06535d05c35d\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/education\/supporting-choice-in-education-is-a-jewish-value\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/education\/supporting-choice-in-education-is-a-jewish-value\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/educationfi.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/educationfi.png\",\"width\":340,\"height\":190,\"caption\":\"Education\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/\",\"name\":\"OU Life\",\"description\":\"Everyday Jewish Living\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/e10ac43745329eb01cce06535d05c35d\",\"name\":\"Jason Bedrick\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jason Bedrick\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/jason-bedrick\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Supporting Choice in Education Is A Jewish Value - OU Life","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/education\/supporting-choice-in-education-is-a-jewish-value\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Supporting Choice in Education Is A Jewish Value - OU Life","og_description":"Education has always been a Jewish priority. 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