I never read anything by Marvin Schick. But I look at the schools that have adopted an “everyone pays this amount, no excuses” and I see that the per child tuition is pretty reasonable. My example would be the Lakewood and Waterbury yeshiva ketanos. Tuition ranges from $3500 – $5000 per child, no excuses. If you can’t pay it, you can raise it. I see that it is difficult to implement, but I think that those issues can be worked out and every school can operate this way.
My idea for a centralised administration would not exclude any school, from MO to uber yeshivish. I personally would not want to extend this service to Reform or Conservative (if they even have private schools, that is). The administration would be as non-denominational as possible. They would collect tuitions from each parent (regardless of school) and manage the expenses of each school appropriately. Obviously, lots of details would need to be ironed out. But I do not in any way mean for this organization to manage the curriculum of each school. That job would have to remain local (and salaried through this central org).
SJS, I’m guessing from your comment about the cost of heating and electricity that you own a home and pay your own bills. Good for you! But while those utility bills seem huge to you (and they are) they are just another expense when running a business. If you looked at how much an office pays for its office supplies, you’d probably be surprised by what you find. Heating and cooling a school costs thousands per year, but it is not a large expense at all in relative terms.
Everyone was quick to point out the advantages of having this type of group for group coverage. Indeed, this would enable all yeshivos to obtain fair group health premiums, group life premiums, group disability premiums, etc. (But don’t think fair means cheap. If the average yeshiva employee has a large family, K”H, the PMPM health insurance cost will not be very low). There are numerous other advantages, too.