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THE BALTIMORE JEWISH HOME
NOVEMBER 17, 2016
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Why Yeshiva Tuition is So Expensive (And How it Can be Solved) By Chaim Homnick
Disclaimer: This article speaks hypothetically and is not referencing any specific yeshiva or school. Any figures used are purely speculative and used as an example to present an overall issue we all face as parents and which many institutions face on an organizational level.
Y B A LT I M O R E J E W I S H H O M E . C O M
NOVEMBER 10, 2016 | The Jewish Home
eshiva tuitions have been steadily creeping higher for years at nearly every Jewish education institution in America. For large Jewish families, tuition is often the biggest household expense right at a time when secular Americans are working on savings and investments. This can have crippling ramifications for many families’ finances. Exacerbating the issue is that the price for many schools aren’t exactly advertised (making choosing schools or even comparing costs difficult) and there are huge gaps in what people pay as some parents pay full tuition or more and others receive significant breaks. Additionally, there are many ancillary school bills tacked on throughout the year causing some parents to become cynical about the process as they buy school “dollars,” fork up for a mandatory dinner or building fee,
and pay their seventh extracurricular, non-tuition bill in the first month of school alone. Recently a Google Docs spreadsheet created by a concerned parent went viral in which people from across American Jewry could fill in information about their schools’ tuitions and view prices of other schools across America. In theory, the document is intended help bridge the informational gap and provide a useful comparison for parents to utilize (hopefully, people used the spreadsheet for productive purposes rather than simply to gossip and criticize). However, there is another informational gap that many schools have not bothered narrowing and that is the reality of what the average school’s budget is really comprised of and what percentage of that is covered by tuition.
THE TRUE COST OF SCHOOL The little known reality to most parents is just how expensive a good Jewish education is. Using the aforementioned spreadsheet for example to complain why Five Towns tuitions are so much higher than tuitions in other seemingly more-affordable places misses the key fact
that schools in the Five Towns provide top-notch schooling that include nice campuses, numerous student services and extracurricular options, and good staff-to-student ratios. In other words, when it comes to schools you get what you (or a few rich donors) pay for. For many schools, tuition only covers 30-50% of the school’s budget, leaving the schools scrambling to fill in the gap. That’s the bottom line explanation for everything from why you get charged for nit checks and book fees to why you may have a mandatory dinner bill of $500 or more. Additionally, every school has its own hashkafos and views when it comes to tuition breaks. Consider the following tale of two schools: School A has the mentality that all children are entitled to a Jewish education and if that means giving sizeable tuition breaks, so be it. As a result, School A struggles to pay the bills, oftentimes paying teachers late. School B meanwhile is unyielding when it comes to tuition and gives minimal breaks. However, they have the latest smartboards and always pay their teachers on time. Which school is right? Both? Neither?
THE REASON FOR THE HIGH COSTS Large schools share many commonalities with large businesses. There are numerous logistical and operational facets to a school, all of which come with significant expenses. The building, utilities, staff, supplies, and marketing can cost in the millions annually for many schools. However, a key issue is that oftentimes yeshivos are run more like government agencies than like businesses. A business tries to perfect its operations while ensuring maximum margins by creating a logical budget that contains costs while allowing room for ample profits. Yeshivos, like many government agencies and other secular nonprofits, seem to feel that a budget should rise to match or even exceed the school’s intake. There has likely never been a school that promoted that they have a surplus of funds so they will skip the usual school auction. Because tuition is oftentimes the only guaranteed “income” (dinners, auctions and other fundraising events can fluctuate yearly) the yeshiva can rely on, those budgets can miss badly and that’s when a lack of positive
cash flow results in teachers getting paid late, services or staff being cut, and schools getting desperate.
THE LACK OF TRANSPARENCY The fact that most parents (unless they happen to sit on the school board) are unaware of the trues cost of each student and the extent of the school’s expenses is a primary reason for the many parents who are unhappy with what they pay for tuition annually. However, another uncomfortable truth is that perhaps if schools were more transparent some unnecessary or unwise spending would be identified as well and maybe tuitions could begin to be lowered. Accountability is always a good thing. Large corporations have to publish quarterly reports and keep their investors happy. Schools should have a similar responsibility towards their parents as the parents are investing their greatest asset – their children – in the school.
A SOLUTION As a business, a yeshiva would be a terrible investment. Schools provide a product that is so costly that the price they charge can’t even cover half of the asso-