A young relative of mine was only in second grade when she took her first “summer job” as a mother’s helper. The pay, of course, was negligible – enough for a little girl to buy herself some extra nosh or that coveted albeit unnecessary toy. So family members were surprised when, upon inquiry as to what her plans for the “big bucks” included, this little girl immediately responded, “I’ll save it to pay for seminary!”
Laughable, but revealing. In our frum community, paying tuition – from the youngest nursery school child to the nearly-grown beis midrash student or seminary girl and every age in between – plays an enormous role in many parents’ lives. Family budgets, lifestyles, and long-term choices often take shape largely around the consideration of children’s tuition costs. Just consider for a moment, though: What would life be like if that were to change? Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Yet for some communities, this far-off notion is indeed a reality – and one whose effects ripple through many aspects of community life. From communal growth to home-buying, from job considerations to donor motivation, and even pizza-consumption habits, tuition concerns (or lack thereof) affect the tempo of Jewish life in cities across America.
Richmond, Virginia
This diminutive yet growth-oriented Jewish community combines good ol’ Southern hospitality and small-town warmth with big opportunity. The scenic Virginia landscape, not too far from our own Baltimore or from the nation’s capital, provides a relaxing backdrop to the rigors of daily life as working parents commute or stay put with plentiful job opportunities. (Between its eight major Fortune 500 companies, large medical center, top research university, and business-welcoming economy, Richmond boasts no measly assortment of job prospects.) Housing costs are decent as well, allowing people to own larger properties than they ever could in the tri-state area for a much more affordable price. But the most relaxing part of Richmond Jewish living? That’s the tuition arrangement, of course.
Richmond’s Jewish families benefit from a state scholarship program called the Virginia Educational Improvement Scholarship Tax Credits program. Parents can go online at their own leisure, upload their tax information, and see what they qualify for. Any family whose income totals below federal poverty guidelines can access the state’s private school funds to cover their child’s tuition. Who’s eligible? Anyone with an income below the 300% line, although the number of household members plays a part as well. Coming as it does from the state, this program benefits all Virginia private schools.
Robin Odlom, school secretary at Rudlin Torah Academy, or RTA, shares that, at first, the community tried attracting potential recruits from the Big Apple by advertising free tuition. However, that platform got some quick adjustments, she says. “Many people had other assets that were not part of their tax forms, so they qualified, but we felt that this system gave free money to people who did not really need it and that it wasn’t right. We stopped saying ‘free education’; we just said, ‘You can apply your tax credit as a credit towards the $10,000 balance, but the scholarship community can still say you owe more.’” In this way, families could get their legal credits, but the school would not lose out. Many local families, she adds, receive about half their tuition money back through this state program.
Perhaps the greatest plus, though, is the donor arrangement – which, Robin hurries to explain, is “just a big a loop. It’s for wealthier taxpayers; for just a little bit of money, they can give back to the community and get a write-off on their taxes.” Under the program’s regulations, a donor can mark donations as a credit off his taxes, so there is actually a very minimal amount coming out of his pocket. For instance, $13 doesn’t sound like a lot to donate. Yet for taxpayers who qualify, a $1,000 contribution to the Richmond Jewish Foundation (the organization in charge of distributing donation funds to the local Jewish private schools for tuition coverage) could extract only that much from his personal wallet. Although donors cannot specify which school they want their donation to go to, the Jewish Foundation sees to it that the moneys are distributed appropriately.
“It’s gotten a lot of people to move down here who were paying tons more – and it benefits the school. If it weren’t for this, the school would have to foot the scholarship bills, and we never could,” Robin opines.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
If the slow pace of Southern life is not your thing, but you aren’t ready to give up on the tuition cuts idea just yet, the great Penn might offer your kids not just a chance to get writing (sorry for the terrible pun) but reading Chumash and Gemara as well. A burgeoning community with many professionals and businesspeople, this historic city offers enough amenities to sustain its frum population in comfort yet without the “big-city” feel. Here, too, a main draw is the tuition program, which bears a lot of similarity to Richmond’s.
Marsha Konell, director of operations for the past 25 years at Politz Hebrew Academy, explains that the Foundation for Jewish Day schools takes charge of dishing out donated tuition funds to local schools; here, much as in Richmond, people can mark their donation preference on their tax returns. One plus for Philadelphians is that taxpayers are free to specify for which school they intend the funds. The Foundation then distributes that money to all of the local Jewish private schools. Catholic schools receive the same service from the state of Pennsylvania.
Marsha points out that, in general, the tuition funding “enables more people to take advantage of private education. And here, where people wouldn’t consider anything but a private Jewish education, it helps them to afford it. For people who are ‘on the fence’ and deciding, this helps them to take that leap.” While income restrictions bar well-to-do families from these benefits, many lower-income families do benefit tremendously. These state tuition funds are certainly a better alternative to the heavy loans and deep debts these families would otherwise find themselves in.
“Nobody’s getting a full scholarship; it’s just a subsidy,” Marsha cautions. Still, it makes a big difference, especially since tuition aid cuts are not coming entirely at a cost to the school; much of that missing money gets paid by the state. But Marsha tells me not to worry: “We still do a lot of fundraising,” she laughs. After all, what would a Jewish school be without a fundraising campaign?
South Bend, Indiana
Miles away from the hustle and bustle of the East Coast, Indiana’s cozy frum population boasts similar opportunities to those of Richmond and Philly. While it doesn’t have much in the way of kosher restaurants, frum clothing stores, or other conveniences of bigger towns, this quiet corner of the Midwest offers one primary amenity: peace and calm. In addition to the Kollel and two local shuls, a day school, girls high school, and boys yeshiva decorate the city’s religious landscape – and these are highly accessible to residents, thanks again to a state-issued tuition funding program. In South Bend, some families even send their children to school for no charge at all. For the approximately 100 families who call South Bend their home, that is amenity enough to make it an attractive locale to raise the next generation of Jews.
For some East Coast families, another great plus is the real estate opportunities. A house sporting three-to-four bedrooms and a spacious lawn can be purchased for as low as $100,000. Property tax is also very affordable, at just $1,000 to $3,500 each year. In terms of jobs, this Indiana market caters mostly to schooled professionals looking to enter the fields of technology, mental health, medicine, or university teaching. Luckily, Chicago awaits only an hour-and-a-half away, so commuting and regular travel are a possibility.
Indiana’s state-funded tuition vouchers mean everything to the community. The program covers children in grades K-12, and there are funds for special education as well. “Although technically the funding goes straight from the state of Indiana to the voucher school, the reality is that the voucher follows the student – and if the student switches schools, the voucher would follow the student to the student's new school,” shares a representative of South Bend Hebrew Day School. “Right now, an issue that’s being discussed at the state level is whether vouchers can be transferred mid-year to follow the student to a different school. Currently, if a student leaves our school during the school year, we refund the remaining prorated voucher funds back to the state, and the student must wait until the following school year to obtain a voucher toward the student’s new school tuition.” That may change, though. Meanwhile, although the amount each family receives varies, most do benefit from the program directly. And as members of this tight-knit community that offers enough warmth to dispel the harsh Midwestern winters, everyone in South Bend can appreciate this program as a leading contributor to the town’s growth and stability.
Cleveland, Ohio
Friendly, out-of-town charm meets fully-functional community structure in this Ohio enclave. From chasidish to Modern Orthodox to yeshivish; from preschool to a world-renowned yeshiva gedolah to established kollelim, Cleveland offers it all. So, although life moves at a slower pace here, there is a plus even for city people: Tuition and housing are affordable, so people can pay for other needs – such as, of course, visiting the town’s two pizza shops and two restaurants.
Rabbi Simcha Dessler, menahel of Cleveland Hebrew Day School, feels that the tuition arrangement affects his community in a big way. “The cost of living Jewishly, in general, and day school affordability, in particular,” he explains, “often poses a challenge to young families. In recent years, Cleveland’s Jewish community has grown exponentially as families have found our community to be warm, embracing, and affordable.”
Rabbi Yitz Frank, director of the Ohio Agudas Yisroel, elaborates on how the system works. Three main programs combine here. First comes EdChoice, available across the state, whose goal is to allow children whose district public schools display chronic underachievement to attend a school better tailored to their scholastic needs and abilities. The scholarships provided through EdChoice can be applied to private schools as well.
Not every public school fits that bill, but EdChoice Expansion, an income-based tuition assistance program, provides another option. Until fifth grade, any child whose family fits below the 200% poverty level (at the time of application) becomes eligible for a scholarship, totaling about $4,650 per student. As long as the family’s income keeps them under the 400% line, the child can continue to receive funding. The program, now in its fifth year, seeks to eventually cover students through high school.
And in Cleveland, it’s a “no child left behind” philosophy, thanks to the John Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program. Special-needs children receive state funds that vary depending on the family’s income. This money can go towards standard day school tuition and can also cover added intervention, such as special therapies. Some Cleveland day schools are themselves providers of this program, making said therapies accessible at school; in others, students need to go further, but the funding makes it more doable.
“For many years,” Rabbi Frank says, “communities outside the tri-state area were shrinking. Now the community is vibrant and the schools are full, which impacts the whole community. More enrollment is a really good thing.”
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is home to a vibrant frum community, including the renown Rabbi Michel Twerski. In this oft-frozen northern state, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program thaws out the ice that so commonly exists between parents and the yeshiva’s tuition board through use of vouchers for private school education. Much like South Bend, this program now includes high school education (though it benefited only elementary schools at its inception) and has recently branched out to cover special education as well. Rabbi Aaron Gross, director of development at Bais Yaakov of Baltimore, who moved from Milwaukee two years ago, explains that this program originally garnered some negative attention as its constitutionality was questioned: Was this a breach of separation of church and state? In the end, though, the Wisconsin state Supreme Court upheld its validity, and the vouchers program survived.
In Milwaukee, Rabbi Gross elaborates, “The state provides a voucher per child. The parents apply, but provided that you fit into the income bracket, all the parent has to do is simply sign the back of the check. It doesn’t cover full tuition, but it’s a great source of assistance and covers a large percentage for many people. These voucher programs are a major attraction to people from out of town and make the cost of living more affordable.”
But it isn’t all as easy as it sounds. The amount provided is the same for every child; “If you qualify, you qualify,” he explains. “Major caveat, though: Once a parent receives that, the school cannot charge one extra penny to the parents – no book fees, nothing else related to education, though they can charge for trips.” So in the end, the school still needs to network plenty for fundraising. Nonetheless, it’s a boon, as tuition costs would otherwise be extremely prohibitive to most of the parent body.
Last but not Least… Baltimore, Sweet Home
Recent years have seen an explosion of Jewish education in Baltimore, with schools such as Ohr Chadash Academy, Cheder Chabad, Jewels, Yeshivas Toras Simcha, Yeshivas Toras Chaim, Mesivtas Kesser Torah, and several new preschool programs opening to service our blossoming community. But in the shadows of the beautiful education that our children receive, tuition costs lurk as a source of tension and stress for many. With costs of $8,000 to $12,000 per child each year, even the financially fit tend to suffer. Can schools be expected to lower costs? Hardly. Speaking as a teacher, teachers do need to get paid, as do school administrators, secretaries, and the maintenance staffs. Schools must continue to keep up their buildings, pay their electric bills, and foot the bill for all the learning and activities that go on in their institutions. Thankfully, the state of Maryland does provide some funding for expenses, such as maintenance and textbooks. The Associated here in Baltimore also gives generously to Bais Yaakov, Bnos Yisroel, Talmudical Academy, and Torah Institute. Another helpful resource, BOOST, offers a state-run program that Rabbi Ariel Sadwin from the Agudah has helped make accessible to our community. It doesn’t benefit the school directly, but through the state, parents can directly receive a percentage of their tuition costs.
Still, the costs of yeshiva education continue to crease the brow of many an average family and interrupt the sleep of many more. Could there be another way to help parents shouldering this backbreaking financial burden? In these communities, the answer is yes. And perhaps, with the influx of potential Jewish politicians, it won’t be too long before Maryland experiences this step up for private schools as well. Until then, keep using that scrip!
