avhaben: Optomotrists, dental assistants, law clerks, law professors, and therapists are paid per session. When we need them, we seet up an appt. I’m not familiar with their pay (per diem or regualr payroll) but frankly, we are not paying for their services when they are not servicing us. I believe that is the difference between schools and the jobs mentioned.
gavra_at_work: You’re right that yeshivas are not reduced babysitting. The point is that I am paying tuition, an exhorbitant amount i might add, and on top of that i have to pay for additional babyisitting for the many many days off that the schools give. As an aside, as mentioned above, babysitting is alot more sometimes. Being that i do not have the knowledge necessary to be a full time morah to my children, but we do have the chiyuv to teach them, we send them to a yeshiva/BY. I cant just stop sending them.
Whiteberry: I cant have a tayna against my boss, he pays me per hour and expects me to be there for the hours he needs me to be there. If i take off too much or ask to leave early/come late time and again, he could very easily find someone else. About the 10-12 month issue, I believe that there are a certain amount of days that a school must be open and that number is in a 10 month school year range. I could be wrong about that as i never fully researched that, however, when registering my children, “10 months of schooling” was mentioned. As far as what other parents do or do not pay, that should not affect what i am paying for. If a parent makes an agreement with the school on how much to pay, whether its the full amount of tuition or a couple of hundred dollars less or free, the services provided should not be less for one because of another. Regarding teenagers, you’re right, maybe i should do more homework on that. But that is not my main issue. Its the amount of days off that schools give.
Thank you everyone for your posts! Its interesting to see all the opinions from so many different angles.