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Ep 8Why is Tuition SO Expensive?
1:15

Tuition & simchas · 1:15

Is it worth getting $8,000 or zero dollars? How one fund moved 85 kids from public school

If there's no Jewish day school in the town, that's it, it's over.

Rabbi Heshy Glass

Ep 8Aug 22, 2021

Why is Tuition SO Expensive?

with Rabbi Heshy Glass

It is the responsibility of the community.

Rabbi Heshy Glass (on who should pay for children whose families can't afford tuition)

More moments · 5

1:26
What a Beverly Hills public school was missing that every yeshiva has
1:06
The Brooklyn yeshiva that lets you pay tuition back years later
1:08
$5,000 or $25,000+: Why School Tuition Varies So Much
1:05
Why is private Jewish school so expensive? 80% is salaries
1:16
How Much of Your Income Should Go to Tuition? About 10%

Try this · top 3

Quotes

“Whatever they're spending at the school, they're spending other people's money.”

Rabbi Heshy Glass

“If there's no Jewish day school in the town, that's it, it's over.”

Rabbi Heshy Glass

“You should only live in a place that you can afford a home.”

Rabbi Heshy Glass (quoting advice from a wise man)

“There's no rationale at all not to pay a rebbi.”

Rabbi Heshy Glass

“It should be that this is a career for the community.”

Rabbi Heshy Glass

Takeaways

  1. 1 A Nishma study found 97% of Orthodox Jews see the cost of Jewish education as the biggest challenge. In Israel, tuition can be about 200 shekels ($60-70) a month because the government pays.
  2. 2 In 2021 New York private schools averaged about $19,000 for elementary and $25,000 for high school. About 80% of a school's budget is salaries.
  3. 3 Lakewood tuition ran about $5,000-7,000 with no reductions, Brooklyn $9,000-11,000, out-of-town $13,000-15,000, and Modern Orthodox schools $25,000 and up. Extras like AP classes and sports raise costs.
  4. 4 Full payers often subsidize families who can't pay. Glass argues that's a communal duty, not just the other parents' burden, since extra students in a class add little cost.
  5. 5 Schools could save by sharing a central business office and an EdTech specialist, and by using fewer part-time teachers.
  6. 6 Gap funding in small communities works: if a family can pay $6,000 of $10,000 and a donor adds $2,000, the school gets $8,000 instead of nothing. His consortium moved 85 children from public school into day schools in one year.
  7. 7 He recalls Rav Hershel Schachter teaching that the institutions you use (your school, shul and mikvah) are your responsibility, with a large share of maaser going to them.
  8. 8 Fewer people choose chinuch because of pay. Small communities struggle to find rebbeim, so some now use distance teaching from New York.
  9. 9 Toronto's Federation handles scholarship applications for all its schools as a private third party and helps cover the gap.
  10. 10 One Brooklyn yeshiva lets families who can pay only part now sign to repay later, which builds trust.
  11. 11 Chinuch from age five shapes values for life. Reaching children early beats trying to reach them at 16 or 20.

Full episode

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