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| With tuition currently at $7,000 – $10,000 in after tax dollars per child, one can quickly calculate the devastating financial impact of having children in a yeshiva or day school. Local rabbis across the country can attest to the terrible levels of tension that exist in day school families trying to balance their stretched finances at the end of each month. This is often a source of strife within the basic Jewish family unit, severely straining shalom bayit (domestic tranquility). This situation even imposes a perverse form of birth control that enforces some couples committed to intensive Jewish education to limit their family size. This is intolerable.
Parents are taking multiple jobs to keep up with the cost, and are unable to spend quality time with their children. This leads to a deteriorating relationship between parent and child and we have seen boys and girls going off the Jewish path at an alarming rate. Teachers are not being paid on time or nearly enough. Quality teachers must go elsewhere because their families cannot live on the meager salaries currently provided by the schools. In order to keep up with rising costs, schools are forced to increase class size to reduce per pupil cost. Even with the increased tuition we are offering inferior education to our children. Day schools and Yeshivas are in daily financial jeopardy, and they do not have the luxury of planning for the future. The system is on the verge of financial collapse. It is outrageous that the wealthiest Jewish community in the history of the world is not providing affordable Jewish education to all who seek it.* |
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