When Chaya* got back from seminary and started to explore career options, her priorities were that it should be family-friendly, something she enjoys, and that the schooling would not put her heavily in debt. She had worked in office management but wanted something more meaningful. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree, she got a job teaching at Bnos Yisroel’s middle school.
“I decided to
teach, having no idea if I would be successful or not,” recalls Chaya.
“Teaching was very demanding with a lot of prep work to do at home, but I loved
it and found it very fulfilling.”
Bnos Yisroel started raising
teachers’ salaries while Chaya was teaching there. She says this made it more
feasible for her to teach. But even more importantly, it
was a very concrete statement about how the school values their teachers.
Long Overdue
In December 2021,
Torah Umesorah announced an initiative to incentivize schools to raise the
salaries of their morahs and rebbeim as well as increase their benefits and
perks. This initiative was a great catalyst for Bnos Yisroel and other Jewish
day schools in Baltimore – and around the world – to challenge the “norm” and
focus on increasing the compensation of their educators. Although they did not
end up participating in the Torah Umesorah initiative, Bnos Yisroel and the
other local schools were very fortunate that local askanim stepped up to the plate to match and actually exceed the
Torah Umesorah model, with an initiative that gave the schools more flexibility
to increase teachers’ salaries in a way that best suited their situations.
Rabbi Chaim
Amster, Director of Development at Bnos Yisroel, shares, “In order for us to be
successful with this effort, we need the support of the community. Day schools
need to be a priority…. Right now, 40% of our budget comes from charitable
sources – foundations, individuals, the Associated Jewish Federation of
Baltimore, and the community. Over the last two years, since this initiative
began, our budget has gone up more than $1.1 million, specifically for our
teachers. We need to take care of our parents who have a challenge paying
tuition, which turns out to be most of our parents, and we are committed to
that, but not on the backs of our teachers who need to be paid properly.”
Happy Teachers, Happy Students
“There is an atmosphere of respect
and gratitude towards teachers that permeates the atmosphere at Bnos Yisroel,”
notes Chaya. “It’s a palpable feeling of camaraderie among the teachers – a team
feeling – derived from the way the administration supports them. It can be a
little thing, like the small Chanukah gift (accompanied by a cute note) they
give their teachers every day of Chanukah or the appreciation melave malka exclusively for the middle school staff members. It leaves
the teachers with the feeling that they are valued, appreciated, and respected
in the school.
“The students really come out the
winners,” believes Chaya. “If teachers know that the community supports
teachers’ salaries being raised and that the community is contributing to the
cause, teachers feel valued for their holy work and will put forward their
best.
You want to have a happy teacher who feels appreciated standing in front of
your kids in the classroom.”
To Teach or Not to Teach? That is the Question
“We need to get to
the point where we are drawing people into the education field,” stresses Rabbi
Amster. “Right now, they just can’t afford to go into education, so they are
choosing careers that are similar in nature to being an educator – like
therapists, social workers or reading specialists, which pay a lot better than
being a teacher.”
Racheli* is a case
in point. She loves teaching, is a wonderful public speaker, and is very
passionate about her Yiddishkeit. She always looked up to her teachers, and
teaching is something she always wanted to go into.
“When it came down
to it, it didn’t make much sense,” says Racheli,” since it makes very little
money, especially because I wanted to marry someone who was starting off and
staying in learning.”
When Racheli asked
her seminary principal if she should go into teaching, she was encouraged to do
so but was advised to do something else in addition. “I did start out in
teaching and kiruv but ended up going
to social work school. Looking back now, I am glad I made that decision because
I love what I do – the one-on-one and helping people. I don’t have to worry
about 25 students! I do have paperwork, which is hard, but nowhere near the
amount that teachers have. Teaching is so much work, and the pay is so low. Maybe
in the future when I am in a different stage of my life, I will consider going
back into teaching, but at this stage – with, thank G-d, small children – I am
very grateful that I wasn’t led on that path.”
Shevy* taught special
ed for 15 years. Every other career she looked into wasn’t practical for her at
the time. “I wanted to go into one of the therapies because they were known to
pay more, but I needed to simultaneously work, and none of the master’s
programs lent themselves to doing that. So I applied for a master’s in special
education and was able to work in the field at the same time. I got deep
satisfaction from my work and gained very much from my early mentors. I was
gratified that I was able to support my husband while he was in kollel.
“As our family
grew and my husband was transitioning out of learning full time and considering
his next steps, I hit an acute burnout, but I wasn’t able to do anything about
it,” says Shevy. “There weren’t any other options for me, and I could not stop
working because my family relied on my income. Although I enjoyed the heart of
the job, it was physically exhausting and required much stamina on many fronts,
something I was running out of and wasn’t receiving adequate support on the
job.
“Covid gave me a
chance to reassess, and I was at a place where I was more honest with myself. I
needed to work because our family was growing, but I just couldn’t continue at
the current job. And despite my husband’s having finished his schooling in his
chosen profession, he was unemployed for over two years. It was a very
difficult time for me.”
Shevy ultimately
found a job in a less pressurized setting, teaching students one-on-one. In the
meantime, she is working towards a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst)
certification. “All the therapies really fascinate me, but they are costly and
wouldn’t make sense to undertake at this point in my life. This is a lot more
reasonable for my circumstances. I don’t have any regrets about going into
teaching. I really gave it my all while immersed in it, and I know I touched
many beautiful lives. I do wish I had received more support in my environment
and didn’t have to experience burnout. I consider those years a wonderful
experience, but the years of teaching are over for me.”
What Our Schools Now Offer
Rabbi Yaacov
Cohen, Executive Director at Talmudical Academy notes, “The local schools are
doing what they can to keep the talent we have, attract new talent, be able to
hire good teachers, and be mechanech
the kids. Ultimately, that’s what it is all about. Over the last few years, TA
has redone all its benefits in terms of offering different packages – like our
staff tuition benefits, short- and long-term disability, a life insurance plan,
qualified tuition reduction plan, subsidized JCC membership, and the Chasdei
Lev pre-Pesach food program. (This is a national program that enables school
staff members to purchase food for one-third of the cost; the organization and
the school each pay one-third.)
Two summers ago,
we did a major overhaul going into the last school year that had about a
million-dollar effect on our budget. We also individually reviewed the
divisions of our school to address the compensation packages and structure and
try to give people raises. Every year, prior to this initiative, we were trying
for a 1.5 to 2% raise. With this initiative, we are doing significantly better
than that – that’s the goal. It’s a staggered approach towards a long-term
goal.”
Torah Institute
CEO Rabbi Raphael Schochet reports, “There are a number of initiatives, still
in their infancy, that are being discussed. Hopefully, with all those we will
bring more dollars into the schools on top of the regular funding, crowd funding,
and other fundraising efforts. Specifically, we joined Chasdei Lev.
Additionally, we have a matching pension plan and have been compensating our
rebbeim for extra incentives that they would otherwise pay out of pocket – such
as Chanukah mesibos and siyumim. If I had my druthers, I would
love to raise the rebbeim by a good 10 to 15% more than what they are getting
now – and they wouldn’t be getting rich with that. Our reality right now is
closer to a 5% raise; they definitely deserve a lot more. They are doing the
most important job, educating our children and our future doros of Klal Yisrael.
This lays the foundation for what our children are going to be, and the rebbeim
and teachers should be able to do that without having to worry about tutoring
and running to extra jobs.”
Bais Yaakov CEO
Rabbi Zalman Nissel applauds the school’s teachers as heroes who make the
school run. “Thanks to the generosity of several local individuals and a strong
fundraising effort, as well as the strong support of the board and the school’s
professional staff, in September 2022, Bais Yaakov increased teaching salaries
significantly. That was in an effort to try to make teaching at Bais Yaakov a
position that was paid at the highest level possible, and this, in fact,
remains our focus and goal. To further support the staff, we added several
incentives, for example, short-term and long-term disability insurance. These
are benefits that are paid completely by the school; the employees pay nothing
for them. We also provide a modest 403B match, which is similar to a for-profit’s
401K. As many schools have, we pay towards a discounted JCC membership, we
participate in pre-Yom Tov food programs, and we obviously have wonderful
vacation and benefit time which you will not find in other types of
organizations.
“We would like to
pay even more and cast as wide of a net as possible to interest qualified
people in teaching. We hope that we can continue to raise funds to even higher
levels to be able to accomplish even more for our teachers and staff and
ultimately more for our parents and for our students.”
Mrs. Ahuvah
Heyman, School Director of Bnos Yisroel, notes, “We are on year two of a very
big initiative to increase salaries. We work very hard to make sure that our
teachers are paid on time and that they are given any extra bonus or gifts
possible. At the end of the day, we found that, going into this year, we had a
lot less turnover than we had two years ago. I can’t say for sure that it is
only the money, but it is also the money.
“This is our 24th
year, and it has become harder and harder to get teachers. It’s kind of
illogical because the best place for a frum
woman to be when her children are growing up, and even when they get older, is
in a frum school. The schedule is
ideal. You don’t have to worry about things like Yom Tov or Chol Hamoed. If
that is true, and we have so many people who are talented and would be great at
teaching, why do more and more parents, guidance counselors, and colleges guide
people away from teaching? Because people have this impression that if you are
a teacher, you cannot earn enough money to support your family. Before we began
this initiative, the salaries were abysmal and unfair, and as a result many
people, rebbeim, and rabbanim were
advising prospective educators to choose a different profession that would
provide them with better compensation.”
However, opines
Mrs. Heyman, with schools now stepping up to the plate, not only can you work
in a school, but if you try to work in a school which one or more of your
children attend, tuition remission makes working in the school a great
financial move!
“It is the job of
the schools to increase the salaries to be comparable to another job that potential
teachers might be interested in,” feels Mrs. Heyman. “So, when we say we are
doing a four-year salary increase, which is Bnos Yisroel’s goal, then at the
end of four years, a teacher can work part-time and earn enough to bring home a
meaningful amount of support for her family.
“Keep in mind that
a teacher works nine months a year, and her summer can be spent doing something
else that works for her family and gives her the ability to make money. Two
years ago, we took the average $18,000 salary (of a main teacher who is working
approximately 16 to 18 hours a week) and gradually increased it, with the goal it
being closer to $40,000 by the end of year four. I am proud to say that we see
that people are not only appreciative, but the numbers are making sense. When
you take that increase and combine it with the schedule and tuition remission
and everything else you get, you come up with a model that is workable. People
can no longer say, ‘It’s okay, they are teachers; they don’t need to make so
much money.’ We need to make teaching a priority, and the klal (community) needs to remember – as it used to be – that
teachers (and rebbeim) deserve to be honored and respected.”
Bnos Yisroel also
recognizes the logistical challenges of afternoon teachers who have young
families. For them, they offer extra perks, such as a free aftercare program
for their 3- to 5-year-olds.
A Call for Action
Mrs. Heyman
concludes, “If we don’t recognize how important this is, then we are not
putting the education of our children first and that is something for which the
whole community needs to take responsibility. On the flip side, if we do
recognize it and we bring glory back to the teaching profession, all of us and
our children will benefit. There needs to be a call for action to support the
Jewish day schools in a much more significant way. I think that is a really
important piece of the puzzle.”
Rabbi Amster adds
that this call for action should be promoted by the rabbanim as well, in shuls and to their kehillos. “Supporting the day schools needs to be a priority in
everyone’s tzedakah giving, and
everyone should try to get involved with the schools of our community,”
encourages Rabbi Amster.
Baltimore
community askan Dr. Paul Volosov
agrees that it is imperative for the community to get involved. He encourages
fellow community members to recognize the halacha that the city you live in and
benefit from is the city that you are most obligated to support with your charitable
giving.
“Our day schools
are the future of our community and of our faith, of our avodas Hashem,” stresses Dr. Volosov. “The children are the future
of our community, and we need to invest in them, which means investing in our
day schools…. We have not been compensating our faculty and staff members in a
way that’s competitive, and this has been true for a very long time.
Compensation is more than pay; it includes all the proper benefits that modern
society typically provides to workers.
“There are
multiple reasons why it is important to compensate them – most importantly, as
Orthodox Jews, we need to live up to the standards that our schools teach.
Torah teaches us that employers are obligated to treat their employees fairly,
and that must be the guiding spirit. There are many halachos in Torah that state
how an employee should be treated by an employer. Certainly, since the primary
purpose of our day schools is to convey the mesorah
(tradition) from one generation to the next, if the leadership of the schools is
serious about conveying that mesorah,
the first thing leadership has to do is to make sure that we live up to the
standards of that mesorah…. We know
there is a worldwide shortage of educators. If our day schools can’t hire
qualified faculty for both religious and secular studies because we are not
offering sufficient compensation, then we can’t have schools; we can’t have chinuch.”
Dr. Volosov says
that a key question is who is responsible for day schools? The responsibility
is certainly shared by all parents whose children attend, but we need to ask
the question is full responsibility for day schools falling on the shoulders of
the parents, or is it a communal responsibility, whether they have children
attending or not?
Dr. Volosov admits
that when the last of his children graduated from school, his initial reaction
was, boruch shepetarani. “I thought,
I’m finished, I’ve paid my tuition for the last 20-something years; now, I am patur. Then, I realized this is not the
case because we can’t expect the cost of a day school education to fall solely
on the shoulders of parents. Even in families where two parents are working and
making two good salaries, they just cannot afford to pay full tuition. How can
this fall solely on the shoulders of the parents? I think the community has the
responsibility to help fund the schools, and that is the only way we can
provide proper compensation to the faculty. It’s a communal responsibility to
deal with both tuition affordability and proper faculty compensation.”
Rabbi Cohen of TA concludes
on an optimistic note, “Baruch Hashem,
the Ribono Shel Olam (G-d) runs the
world, and He has a plan. Our yeshivos will be fine, and our Bais Yaakovs will
be fine, and, iy”H, we will have a
lot of mechanchos and rebbeim, and we
just have to do our hishtadlus (effort)
as best we can. Despite the fact that it is challenging, we will persevere, and
Hashem will provide for Klal Yisrael’s
children!”
*a pseudonym
