“An Inconvenient Truth About Day Schools”:  A Culture of Affluence and the Prohibitive Cost of a Jewish Education.

This article from the New York Jewish Week (August 18, 2009)  is a must read as much of the troubling issues raised by this article are equally applicable here in Canada.   While the UJA continues to insist that they have done all they can to assist struggling middle class parents in subsidizing their children’s education, we understand that Jewish parents are in greater numbers defecting from the day school system or are silently suffering from the back-breaking tuition fees.  Day school fees are prohibitive and unaffordable and have been for years now, yet the UJA conducts its business as usual. We are losing the fight to educate our Jewish children yet there is no sincere community-wide appreciation of this crisis in education nor are there any solutions in sight.  Shame on the UJA and its “leadership”.

Some pertinent quotes:  

“And — as has been documented in the pages of this newspaper as well as other venues — the biggest cause of this distress has been the steadily mounting price of Jewish day school, which my husband and I provided for our three children, a commitment that absolved us not of luxury items but of basic necessities.

After more than two decades of living under the cloud of financial anxiety, it comes as a huge relief to hear someone else suddenly proclaiming day school tuition unaffordable; indeed, the non-sustainability of the high-tuition Jewish day school model has become the new mantra of the Jewish community.”

See as well, comments here.

On the other side of the equation, Ron Csillag, who lives in the Greater Toronto Area, wrote an article about the success of the Toronto Day Schools which was published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). Wayne is cited in this article and would like to correct one little, but important thing. Wayne is better described as a long time critic of the governance of Jewish Community institutions. Their inability to manage cost is but one symptom of this poor governance. You can view the article here.

We hope that collectively (that means you too) we'll transform the governance of these institutions and achieve unprecedented strength wherever Jews are found.

Wayne Levin  & Yossi Adler