ZD:
I agree 100% that the crazy high wages because of unions are unfair and a drain on society. i also agree that our morahs, rebbes, and the bulk of our mechanchim are seriously underpaid. But I take issue with your argument. Having 7 kids is not the school’s responsibility. Nor is the husband who is sitting in kollel.
The notion of sitting in kollel is already subjected to notorious abuse. The obligation on the husband/father is to support his family. The כל כבודה has been trashed in order to prop up the kollel myth. No, I am not anti-Torah, nor do I minimize the learning. It is the culture of dependency and entitlement. Sorry, but that’s a socialist value, and I cannot embrace it. The bnei kollel should be the ones whose future is to return the favor to the community, as klei kodesh, for which they should be properly compensated. They should not be on every government handout known, and their wives should not be running around to feed the family.
Full time learning is either a communal responsibility – one has the capacity to pursue a Torah career, or it is an escape from the responsibility of supporting a home and family. Sadly, the latter is true way too often, and it is displayed as some holy venture when it is not. We have deluded our young boys into believing they will all become gedolei hador without applying themselves to the effort, just by remaining enrolled for a bunch of years and by not accepting jobs anywhere else. We have tricked our young girls into the holy mission of marrying someone who will forever be on the receiving end of entitlement programs, for which they must work at often unfairly low wages. Yes, we have goytes raising the kids, and this is a holy mission.
The tuition crisis is made ever more challenging because the schools have been receiving less and less government subsidy, and they are only a few of the takers in a tzedokoh market that is crammed with competition. Now that many of the previous generation who went to kollel are the parents of the young families, the ability to share tuition with parents and in-laws ain’t what it used to be.
We cannot choke the ones who need to be breadwinners by proclaiming them holy when they avoid the workplace, and placing the burden on the נשים צדקניות who need to be home, כל כבודה בת מלך פנימה, raising the children.
I am not looking to make this thread a debate on kollel life, for which there are many others. But to address in completely outside of that context is irresponsible.