Yeshiva Tuition – question for executive directors

1. What rate should be tuition be set at when a parent is unemployed and has no income?

2. If a parent isn’t keeping up with their tuition, will the children be thrown out of Yeshiva?

A very complicated question, since different families with the same income will have different needs. For instance, one may Ch”v have a child with special needs or medical problems that cost a good deal of money. An older parent may need help and care giving. And of course the everyday costs of life differ from place to place. Compare housing costs in Lakewood or Brooklyn with housing costs in OOT communities.

And again, different yeshivas have different budgets and different priorities. A yeshiva with a new building and a high mortgage will need a higher income than one in older or remodeled quarters, and the number of parents who can afford full tuition will make a difference too.

It would be a good idea if all yeshivas published a detailed yearly report on income and budget so parents could know exactly how much money is coming in and where it is going, letting parents feel informed instead of doubtful. For instance, doing remodeling or adding an addition instead of building a new building from scratch could avoid heavy mortgage payments and less financial strain on the school. It also helps if the school meets its payroll obligations in full on time. Financial strain on the teachers will prevent them from teaching at their best.

This is something that demands our immediate and serious attention, since the welfare of our next generation depends on how we solve the problems of our mosdos.

What the yeshivah asks, is what is resonable. if they want to do you a favor and give scholarship that’s great , if not , there are many Yeshivot not in the standard you are looking for that are more than willing t btake your child. (Spoken from a Rebbe who hasn’t gotten paid, because parents have to pay their vacation homes and camps first)

A yeshiva should charge ALL parents the same tuition which is determined by the allocating the full physical and variable costs of ownership and operating the physical plant, paying all the rebbes, morat , administrative and support staff a living wage. It should be up to the parents to work with various charities to the extent they need financial support. Why is tuition different from rent, food etc. We don’t expect landlords and market owners to price their apartments and cholent based on the income of the leasee or customer. Let schools focus on education and don’t expect them to run a gemach. There are other mosdos who should take on that responsibility.

Rebbies and teachers complain about not making large salaries. I don’t get it. They only work, say, 5 hours a day and get two months off in the summer plus several weeks off for Jewish holidays during the year. What profession pays their employees a large salary and lets them vacation 1/4 of the year and go home at 3:00?

Im not talking about how much a rebbe gets paid we’ve accepted that when we sign up for the job. But why should I get paid late month after month because no one pays their tuition on time, but those same people are out on vacation ….

There are yeshivas that have a lower standard in english /judaic studies, less extra room (no gym, cafeteria , big BM) maybe less administration , less therapist. And they give their children enough of the religious standard as every other school.

Parents send their kids to yeshiva because they don’t really have a choice.

I think one could have a better attitude and view it as a privilege to give one’s children a Jewish education.

Of course, it is an obligation as well, but still, why does that put the impetus on the schools?

Someone gave an analogy of an ice cream store. Ok, poor analogy, because ice cream is a luxury, and a Jewish education is a necessity.

How about a grocery, a landlord, a clothing store, etc.? Are they required to operate at a loss because they deal in necessities?

Tuition is, for many families, a tremendous financial burden, and people are frustrated. I get that. But it’s really unfair to bad-mouth the mosdos which actually do give many parents breaks and educate their children for below the actual cost, because of a misguided perception that they are obligated to swallow even more.

Should parents have less kids because yeshiva costs are too high?

Someone making that choice depends on their level of bitachon. Hashem prepares the finances for each child as they’re born.

GH:

Correct. A school should not be a gemach. Ideally, other organizations should serve the role of assisting parents with tuition costs. Trouble is, that is a fantasy. There are no such organizations. So it won’t happen. If these hundreds or even thousands of kids end up in the street, a generation is lost, and the community would need to tackle a huge crisis. So that’s not the answer either.

These same yeshivos conduct countless fund raising campaigns. They train the students to collect tzedokoh at various times of the year (debatable whether this is good or bad chinuch), and they have various events including dinners, chinese auctions, mailings, and other events. This should spread the financial burden away from tuition. But sadly, this does not happen.

TM:

You have a valid point. The clocked hours often do not reflect the amount of time invested in the job. Yeshivos know that,, and compensation is calculated that way (though it is still usually way too low). But there is a painful reality. There is a huge (though shrinking) percentage of melamdim, rebbes, teachers, etc. who lack training, and are utter failures at doing the job well. They may have a greater knowledge fund than their students, but that is nowhere close to the top of the list of qualities and skills needed to teach a class. We have large classes, and classroom management is a mammoth task. The time that gets invested in discipline, enforcing rules, etc., is destroying education time. Truly trained faculty make lesson plans that captivate the students who want to attend, participate, and absorb the material. Kids are not so “bad behaved”. Teachers are just unable to manage them because they don’t know how. Kollel for a decade has never prepared anyone for a classroom, though it may have enhanced one’s Torah knowledge.

Being a rebbe requires individual attention to every single talmid, including connecting with the parents. Nachas calls are not a staple, though discipline calls are frequent. Watch what happens when a kid discovers the rebbe extending a caring hand. Presto, the “bad behavior” vanishes. I’m not preaching here. I just would like to see our mechanchim and parents more aware of what chinuch is. I promise you one thing. It is not synonymous with discipline.

Unless yeshivas charge on a sliding scale meaning richer people pay MORE and I dont mean full tution, I mean 3 x 4 x 5 x or more the regular tution to subsidize those that cant pay. its wrong that people are avoiding paying. There is only so much tution people can reasonably pay.

Unless new funding sources are found (Like a communal tax which is very unliley) the situation will remain

What profession pays their employees a large salary and lets them vacation 1/4 of the year and go home at “3:00?”

Sports, entertainment, banking. In fact, in the sports world, there are those who earn on the scale of 8200 times as much per hour as the average teacher. I await your reply in the thread you started specifically for this discussion.