Follow-Up Questions concerning Jewish Education Services

This week's CJN covers the education issue. It can be found here.

Here are some questions that, as a community, we need to know:

1) What are the criteria that are used to judge the success of the UJA's role in Jewish education?
2) What are the performance trends vis-a-vis these criteria?
3) What was it about the undesirable performance of "Mercaz" that triggered this major restructuring?
4) Why were there no consultations with the stakeholders: chief among them, the parents? The article says that several months of ongoing discussions took place before this re-re-structuring was approved. Why were none of these discussions with the parents?
5) Why is it that Lou Greenbaum, Chair of the Mercaz, deems it inappropriate for him to discuss the changes with the parents? Is that not exactly what
the Chair should be doing?
6) The Mercaz structure came as a recommendation of the Federation's own task force on Jewish education just two years ago. What does this say about Federation's modus operandi generally?
7) What are the names of the "lead professional and lay people" at the federation and the Mercaz who made these recommendations? They are making decisions that affect thousands of others. Shouldn't we know their names and positions? Or are they not prepared to publicly defend their decisions?

Please remember that day school parents pay in tuition about twice what the UJA raises in their annual campaign and they get practically ZERO say in the affairs of Jewish Day Schools. Parents could never bring about the kind of change that the UJA has done twice in recent years simply because the Day Schools run very much like the UJA - no accountability, no transparency.

This is just so typical of the UJA.

If you're a parent - call the UJA/Mercaz (416 633 7770) - demand a public forum - demand transparency and accountability on Jewish Education issues and on everything the UJA does.

Wayne J. Levin & Yossi Adler
FederationWatch (Federationwatch.blogspot.com)