It is clear that many families are facing the tuition crunches that Yigal Gross so articulately described in his first article. And I thank Rabbi Toren for encouraging us to think in terms of economics, since this is - at least on its most basic level - an issue of economics.
In a world of perfect competition, the inability of many families to afford Jewish day school would quickly and naturally lead to new entrances that force the lowering of prices and lead to the market equilibrium we all remember from our introduction to microeconomics classes. However, perfect competition is far from the reality of Jewish day school education. The Wikipedia page for "perfect competition" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_competition) names 12 conditions that comprise the definition of a perfect competition environment, none of which completely exist in the field of Jewish day school education.
We could write a full post on each of these 12 conditions (and perhaps at some point I will), but I'd like to focus on one: the issue of barriers to entry. A barrier to entry is a "cost that must be incurred by a new entrant into a market that incumbents don't have to incur." Having partnered with several local groups trying to introduce new competition to overly expensive Jewish day school markets and having spoken to many more, I can say that there are many barriers to entry in this field and they are quite powerful. Starting a school requires a large financial investment, the procurement of an appropriate facility, the hiring of a talented administration and faculty, the development of a high-quality educational program, and recruiting a critical mass of families. I have personally been in conversation with many individuals and groups who considered starting a school, but who backed down when they encountered the tremendous obstacles involved.
There have been many bottom-up efforts to start more affordable Jewish day schools over the past five years. Two that we at AJE partner with - Yeshivat He'Atid (Teaneck, NJ) and Westchester Torah Academy (Westchester County, NY) - together have over 400 students registered for the upcoming school year and have saved Jewish families almost $7 million in tuition bills. However, for every initiative that successfully got of the ground there are many more that did not. There are many reasons why most initiatives fail and each one has its own interesting story, but fundamentally in my opinion it's much more about complex economics than it is about a lack of need.
Jeff Kiderman
Executive Director
Affordable Jewish Education Project
