Of course Jewish Day School is worth the cost! No other institutional Jewish experience has anywhere near the same level of teaching, inspiring, and forming the next generation of committed Jews. There will be children who will choose the committed Jewish path despite going to a non-Jewish school, and there will unfortunately be children who choose a different path even though they graduated from day school. There will always be students who unfortunately cannot be educationally supported by the Jewish day school system or by a particular locale's day schools. Those are the exceptions to the rule. For a deeper understanding, please read Dr. Jack Wertheimer's exhaustive study - [
www.bjpa.org] - and my much shorter article- [
blogs.timesofisrael.com] - which explain the dangers of non-Jewish schools for our children. Rabbi Klapper pays token attention to the need to create our own school system without explaining the underlying issues or impact. He presents an imbalanced picture on whether day school is "worth it" without fully presenting both sides.
Each generation needs to relearn the lessons of history. It becomes too easy to think that raising Jewish children to be committed Jewish adults occurs on auto-pilot. Having learned much Torah from Rabbi Klapper and knowing him personally for many years, I doubt he means this, but I fear that a reader could misunderstand. Sefer Devarim spends much time dispelling that myth. Each and every generation requires an immense amount of Jewish investment. Looking back 60 years should remind us what happens on average when students go to non-Jewish school. The questions Rabbi Klapper raises are really a product of day school's success and he neglects to mention the factors that helped us get to this level of success committed Jewish living. Jewish day school has been highly successful - the number of people keeping kosher, the number of people observing Shabbat, the low rate of intermarriage amongst day school graduates, the number of Torah institutions, and the number of people studying Torah.
Jewish day schools have gotten much more expensive because they have also gotten a lot better. Schools offer much greater expertise and more individualized attention. How many teachers had a Masters degree or a PhD 25 years ago? How many learning support staff were trained literacy or special needs experts instead of tutors? Schools have gotten more expensive because better teachers are now paid a respectable wage and also benefits, and there are now more of those highly qualified teachers that have been hired. This all enables to enable better learning.
In fact, the Avichai literature from the mid-1990s - [
avichai.org] - decries the woeful state of school financing. Sections of their reports are devoted to the underfunding of schools. The primary medium term goal in those reports was to get more money into the system. In 1995, NY/NJ public schools spent $9000 per student; Jewish day schools spent about $5700, with a dual curriculum! Adjusted for inflation (http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/), NY/NJ public school would spend $14,200 per student and day schools would spend $9,000 per student. However, NY spends over $20,000 per year and NJ is not far behind. In other words, the cost of all education has greatly exceeded inflation. The increased cost of university - [
www.usnews.com] - has far outpaced inflation. Jewish day school, which offers about 40% more class time than public school, has increased with its industry and is still slightly under the public school scale.
The Avichai report on the financing of Jewish day schools from 1997 emphasizes that larger schools do not save money per student. My experience tells me that that is mostly true today. Often times, the programmatic additions to accommodate more students equal the tuition revenues they bring in.
Rabbi Klapper's title misleads. His article is not a comparison between the cost of Jewish day school vs. public school, and whether the full cost of day school is worth it. The fundamental issue which R Klapper alludes to is that 25 years ago Jewish schools were parochial schools. Now with more robust programs - APs, course electives, Shabbatons, informal education, clubs, sports teams, traveling to sports tournaments, robust college and Israel advising departments, Jewish schools have entered the category of the independent school.
This presents an important challenge. If the controlling body of the school wants to run the independent school model while some parents just want a (non-chareidi) parochial Jewish school that costs less and offers less, the latter group has very few options available. In which case, the cost of the more robust program is being passed onto those that can afford it the least.
Making Jewish day school affordable is a holy endeavor that lacks an easy or obvious solution. Keeping Jewish education at its current level, and figuring out ways to make it better is our first priority; making it affordable is a close second. As we go through this uncertain process of making Jewish education affordable, we need to remember that Jewish education plays such a central role in our religion that as God describes his reason to distinguish Avraham, he states, “For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is just and right†(Genesis 18:19).
Rabbi Rafi Eis
CEO, Mekorot Learning
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2017 07:28AM by mlb.
