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Yabia: You are the sfardi voice of the YW coffee room and obviously know about the greatness of the Baba Sali zt’l. Why would you post this? Are you trying to lure someone into saying something negative about one of the gedolei hador of the previous generation?
Looking at some of the other posts of the OP it seems like her husband is actually a long-term kollel fellow (8+ years?). That changes a lot
1. I think it is rare for parents to give support to children for the long term. It may be true that short term (1-4 years) many but not all kollel families receive parental support but long term is rare.
2. While indicated that it seems to me most couples should be able to make it in kollel without the need for parental support all the rules change once you start talking about long term kollel. Once you get into issues of multiple tuitions and a growing family it is a whole different ballpark
3. Yes you will find people even in the chareidi community who will be skeptical about long-term kollel families. Many of the families in these situations are there by accident not because it is part of a life plan. We don’t know the situation of the OP but don’t be surprised if people assume that you are part of that majority that just fell into it.
Amom kudos to you for living the kollel life for the right reasons and may Hashem support you and your husband.
I think an important question is if parental support is really necessary in today’s day and age. It seems to me that there are many jobs available for kollel wives that bring in a very respectable salary and kollelim themselves provide a much higher stipend than in the past.Let’s say the wife can earn $35-40 k and the husband can bring in another $12 K from a kollel check. Add in some nice donations from the government in the form of child tax credits, medical insurance, wic etc. how much more does a couple need to get by? Granted if they want to live the high life with late-model SUVs and high-end baby strollers and clothing it will cost more. But can’t a kollel couple get by very comfortably today if they live a modest lifestyle?
What am I missing?
Gadol Hadorah: There are very few cities in the US where rent for a 2 or 3 bedroom apt is more than $4,000 per month. In those rare cases, the schools pay much more than $4,000 per month.
Romain: The issue is more than asking for a liveable salary. The issue is that people are not choosing teaching as a profession. The hope is that if salaries are increased that will change things.
Comparing teachers’ salaries from one country to another is just silly without comparing all cost of living expenses in total.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting teachers should make $168k per year. When you throw out a number like that it means your post is not serious
There is a teacher shortage in the public schools too. It could be attributed to a lot of factors but the bottom line is that the issue of supply and demand is simply not raising the salaries for either Moros or Rabbeim. The schools feel like they can’t win. The parents scream bloody murder if tuitions go up and there is only so much cash in the pot. So the schools try to pay as little as they can get away with but the Rabbeim and Moros say that I still need a liveable salary. They don’t care if you tell them how much they get paid per hour. They need to pay their bills.
Soooo… the boys work selling on Amazon and the girls go into medical billing.
It used to be that there was something called idealism and people were willing to suffer with a lower wage because they lived for an ideal.
I dealsim is pretty much dead but hey, that should be a topic for a whole new thread.
edited
It sounds logical but guess what: it’s not working. Ask any school administrator anywhere in the country if there is a shortage from both Male and Female teachers.
Secondly your suggestion of hiring cheap labor means that you will get what you pay for. Perhaps in a factory in China it pays to hires unskilled labor to install widgets but if you wanted dedicated professionals to teach your kids and grandkids it will cost.
This leaves only two sources for the money, philanthropists, higher tuitions or both.