Is there a citation for the remark by Reb Moshe Feinstein ZT”L? I am curious what the details of this situation were, and the degree to which he intended this comment to be general.
Now to my comments.
Every yeshiva will have its own formula for its income, tuition, government funds, charitable funds, etc. What works for one may not be the same for another. Yeshivos establish their tuition scales based on the degree of dependence they carry on tuition for their income and operations. To the best we can tell, yeshivos, at least a majority, operate in the red, and struggle with many of their expenses. Some prioritize salaries for faculty, others do not. And most rebbeim and teachers are seriously underpaid. Periodically, the faculty that is behind on receiving paychecks make enough noise to compel the administration to take extra steps to insure they get paid. This is common, and not fun for anyone. Just how many online campaigns for yeshivos did you receive requests and donated? So the lack of adequate funding is pretty much standard.
Now the rub. Fund raising is a gamble, and some do it well, others less so. If there is already a commitment for someone to pay, it stands to reason that this debt should be paid. As earlier comments noted, it is usually the parents that have less and are already struggling themselves that bear the brunt of this pressure. And the only force the yeshivos know is to block entry to the kids. That’s their clout. I think this is cruel and unusual punishment, directed at a purely innocent child, and extremely destructive. The absence from yeshiva is nasty, the shame heaped on children is tantamount to murder, and the whole campaign is ill conceived. Yeshivos do it because they can, not because it’s right or moral.
My income was seasonal, and I had agreements with the administration before the school year that I would not be subjected to this strong arm tactic. And the schools were never without a fully paid balance by year’s end. But they had lied, and did it anyway. This required me to take time off work. No phone calls helped. And even really small outstanding balances prompted the same treatment, as if the greed for the few dollars owed was a valuable lesson for the school.
I suggest that some creative minds propose methods that are better routed in morality, better conceived to avoid use of shame, better focused on the use of education rather than the blockade, that can enable yeshivos to manage their finances without the need to bully parents. I don’t have the answers. I just know that this method is unacceptable.