Comments on: Op-Ed: Who’s to Judge?

By: kako

kako — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:17:05 +0000

Excellent article. Thanks for putting in writing the thoughts of many hard-working people who are barely making enough to keep their families afloat, yet are expected to pay more for every service in our communities just because they work.

By: laytzonay hador omrim

laytzonay hador omrim — Mon, 13 May 2013 04:34:21 +0000

E-O-M is right on the money (pun fully intended). Millions of dollars are raised for kids with cancer & people who are having difficulty conceiving lo aleinu on both. Yet Yeshiva tuitions which are so costly & unaffordable to middle class (most) frum families causing extreme stress & difficulty in running a family by forcing mothers to be out working or working longer hours than they normaly would. This causes children to be raised by babysitters many of whom are goyim. It trickles down to entire communities of stressed fathers & mothers who can’t properly be mechanech their children so it falls to the yeshiva who in turn needs more money for special programs & services. And so it goes on….

By: ThenAgain

ThenAgain — Mon, 13 May 2013 02:45:16 +0000

The author could have saved himself and us a lot of time by simply writing, “there is no perfect way to assess a family’s ability to pay tuition”. That’s a truism. So is the consequence – Yeshivos must therefore utilize less-than-perfect ways to accomplish the task.

And accomplish the task they must. There isn’t enough donor money in any Yeshiva for tuition to be free. Thus Yeshivos have an achrayus to their donors and to the parent body to assure that available funds are allocated to those who need it the most.

The author and many of the posters here are entitled to their extended kvetches and to expression of their unrealistic wishes but I’m not sure what either contributes to solving the problem.

By: E-O-M

E-O-M — Sun, 12 May 2013 21:04:58 +0000

The community(ies) seem to be raising funds for every eligible crisis except for the tuition crisis. In my opinion this matter comes first. I just paid my first major tuition bill in full. Not that I have any extra money, but this has to come first, our yeshivot are our furure.

By: Josh31

Josh31 — Sun, 12 May 2013 20:16:45 +0000

The real problem is that there are Boruch Ha’Batlans and Kalman Ha’Ksils in the first place. In the US they financially sink the schools, in Israel they cause parties such as Yesh Atid to sprout. In the US, these were boys who were taught (often by their peers) to ignore their secular studies in the name of Frumkeit.

By: commonsense

commonsense — Sun, 12 May 2013 20:01:10 +0000

one way to check would be unexpected home visits to anyone who requests a break. I might be embarrassed by the mess but they would see I am telling the truth as opposed to a number of people i know who live well but claim poverty when it comes to tuition.

By: elicpa

elicpa — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:19:06 +0000

THANK YOU for writing the article. Finally its in print and not just in many minds. Anyone who relies on a tax return is a fool. Someone might suggest audited financial statements. Well, I wouldn’t rely on those either. Face to face is not a solution either, ever ask someone how’s business and get a response “It’s wonderful, I’m making loads of money, I have a house in Florida, the Country and an apartment in EY.” You get my point there is no solution unless the yeshiva wants to audit each person better than accounting firms and the IRS does.

By: crazykanoiy

crazykanoiy — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:51:10 +0000

This entire article is pure nonsense. The third party and school take into account multiple factors when establishing criteria for tuition reduction. Gavriel Ha’gvir will get a reduction if his $100,000 still leaves him being unable to afford full tuition. As for Kalman if he gets paid in Cash and lies to everybody about his income there is nothing that a school can do. (The fact that someone works hard and someone does not should not factor into tuition decisions. Schools should not charge people more tuition if they inherited or were born into wealth than if they worked hard for it.)

And what about the person you forgot to describe Boruch Ba’al Taiveh who tells the tuition board he has no money yet has no problem buying his wife and children a new wardrobe every yom tov, leases the newest car, goes on vacation every summer and makes beautiful chasunahs and buys houses for all his children. Yes, this is why third party verification is neccessary because all to many people do not seem to feel that they must pay tuition at all. They feel that whatever they give is more than enough. This attitude must stop.

By: yosse

yosse — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:33:44 +0000

please tell us why for the non frum children we can find a way for them to get a education in a yeshiva for cheap or at no cost to the parent , yet for the child who comes from a frum home they can never pay enough and the children how there parents have to slave.
what happened to yesteryear when the yeshivos sent out fundraisers to raise the money that was needed so that kids could go to yeshiva even if there parents could not afford it.
today the yeshiva wants the parent to fund raise and that is were the problem is. if the parent is late on tuition lets embarrass the child by not giving them there report-card or there diploma by graduation.