Solving The Yeshiva Tuition Crisis

There can be no direct governmental support to Yeshivas in New York as long as the state’s Blaine Amendment is in the State Constitution. An effort was made to repeal it way back in the 1960s and it was voted down by the voters. (Does anyone remember why?) And I see little chance for any change with the current political climate — everywhere in the US that voters have been given a chance to vote on possible tuition voucher programs, they have been voted down, usually by huge margins. Suburban voters fear (correctly) that some of their extraordinarily high property taxes will be diverted to private schools if such a program were proposed. And it doesn’t help that the most vocal proponents of tuition vouchers are ideologues who really would like to destroy public schools. That is not our agenda; we just want some fairness!

That said, Ms. Isler makes some great points. There are in fact huge economies of scale in the operation of schools. Joint purchasing and insurance can result in some significant savings — and possibly better benefits our teachers deserve. But can we really get agreement? Will the charedi yeshiva really use the same biology textbooks as the MO high school in my neighborhood whose students were #1 in the entire United States? Will the MO high school really accept history taught according to the Seder Olam chronology?

And will parents really enroll their children in schools whose philosophies differ from theirs? Are charedi parents really willing to walk their kids to the co-ed community day school? Are MO parents really willing to enroll their kids in the yeshiva with minimal secular studies? Will the rabbis permit any enrollment into public schools?

I’m also unconvinced that enrollment into public schools will make much impact. New York City has over one million students in its public schools. Even if every single frum kid in the city were to enroll into public schools it could handle the extra enrollment. It probably WOULD matter in small suburban districts, but the districts themselves have no power to help our yeshivas because of the Blaine Amendment.

I salute Mr. Isler for being willing to talk about the issue and to suggest bold solutions. I look forward to more.

The way to fix the tution crisis is, CONVERT EVERY YESHIVA TO A PUBLIC SCHOOL!!

(in name and theory)

The non frum wouldn’t send there anyway as school ends so late, and has “weird students”.

If done this way, there would be no problem with seperation of Church and State.

what about school vouchers??? the idea has come up in local/state elections but has not passed yet… it could solve some big tuition issues!

You can’t convert a yeshiva to a public school. You wouldn’t be able to teach Gemara, Halachah, or anything deemed “religious”.

I dont think all his ideas make sense like a gold and silver level. Most people I know have no interest in going to the dinner and the perks are all nonsensical

Mr. Isler’s self-described “manifesto” reflects a lot of thought, and I thank him for that. One of his proposals is to seek more money from the public treasury. If we Jews seek taxpayer funds to subsidize our schools, and if we succeed in do so, we will surely have opened the floodgates to other religious groups’ seeking support for their children’s education. Are we sure that we as Jews want that? Will that result in a net gain or a net loss – in dollars – to us as a community, if public funds are available for religious education (or the “secular” portion of education conducted in religious schools)?

I think another model has to be considered, which so-called Reform Jews (alcoholics should be reformed, not Jews) and Conservative Jews have used for more than 50 years – public school for secular subjects, and “Hebrew” school for religious education, after public school hours and on Sundays. Admittedly, the high rates of intermarriage among Reform and Conservative Jews suggests that their schools have not been successful, but the problem is not the school model, it is insufficiency of Torah from their curricula. Admittedly, also, Torah and Yiddishkeit are not separable from “secular” studies, and a yeshiva infuses Torah into secular subjects in a way that public schools cannot, but if the “tuition crisis” is to be solved, we have to try alternatives.

We also have to accept the possibility that the US Constitution will not allow public funding of private or religious schools. I personally believe that is a good thing – we Jews are currently enjoying a favored position in US society and government, but Jewish security in the United States should be protected by the Constitution and law, not by our current favorable political position. We are a tiny portion of the US population – less than 3% – and we would not be wise to count on political power to protect ourselves and assure our continued survival in the US.

Mr. Isler makes some good points about the state of affairs and raises some good (mostly unachievable) conceptual ideas that could chip away at the crisis a little, but seems to still be leaning toward the idea of enrolling Orthodox Jewish children in public school, one way or another. And then he questions why he doesn’t get any cooperation or interest from rabbonim.

The reality that Mr. Isler seems somewhat out of touch with, is that most yeshiva parents (and rabbonim) have very strong convictions about keeping their children out of a public school environment at all costs. Mr. Isler, on the other hand, seems to be pretty comfortable with the idea of Orthodox Jewish children attending public school (possibly with non-Jewish children), doesn’t seem to perceive the risks of a public school environment for Orthodox Jewish children. This attitude is somewhat typical of some religious Jews who may have attended public school as children many years ago, but unfortunately they are usually the exception if they remained religious, and everyone knows that a public school environment today is far worse than the environment that existed in public schools of a previous generation. As soon as Mr. Isler exhibits a commitment to the ideals and the necessity of yeshiva education and a yeshiva environment, and stops painting rabbonim as the enemy, he should find that more people will take him seriously and his efforts will come across more constructively and less like a personal rant about his tuition bills.

So it would work like this: the planning table would consist of Agudah, Lakewood, Chabad, Torah Vodaas, Bais Yaakov, YU aaanndd Solomon Schechter? Just try to get everyone to work together. V’gar ze’ev im keves will happen sooner.

I think the schools would be well-served by centralizing scholarships, purchasing and healthcare/life insurance and this could provide a significant savings for schools that could have a real impact on tuition costs without dealing with church/state issues. I think we need someone to set up a business plan for this “entity” and push it through to the schools at conventions of yeshiva principals. The problem is twofold: no yeshiva principal or board wants to give up the control they have over “their” school, even over issues like these that shouldn’t have an educational impact and the loss of jobs of yeshiva administrators who are currently handling the processes that would be centralized. I doubt many schools would agree to cut their administrative staff for something like this.

All children from Yeshiva should sign up for public school. After the initial shock of having to bring in thousands of new students into the school system, the City iof New York will wake up and agree to pay for the secular education of the yeshiva children , so that they will stay in Yeshiva. THIS IS A REAL SOLUTION!!!!

Ah no, for one thing it would be illegal under NY state law. For another it would not be that big a jump in the total numbers of kids in the NY public school system.