Two New York Jewish day schools lower tuition for the first time ever.
This upcoming school year, children from across Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island will be leaving public school and instead attending a New York Jewish day school—many for the first time. And in Rochester, families from across New York and even some from other states, have been moving there specifically to attend Jewish day school this fall.
The reason for the sudden influx: several months ago, our two schools—Brandeis Hebrew Academy in Lawrence and Derech HaTorah in Rochester—announced we would each, independently, be lowering tuition, making the dream of an affordable Jewish education a reality for dozens of families.
Year after year, as tuition has continued to rise, we have witnessed families struggling to cover the cost of a Jewish education, with some even moving to states with better affordability options. Others are being priced out entirely, reluctantly asking for larger scholarships or sending their children to public school instead. As educators, we understood the loss here, the value that a Jewish education plays in a child’s life, and the ripple effect it has on the Jewish community as a whole. That’s why, we, along with our fellow parents and community members, took it upon ourselves to find a solution to this tuition crisis, lowering the cost for the first time ever.
Of course, lowering tuition is no easy feat when trying to compete with rising costs, teacher shortages and inflation, all while trying to remain competitive and provide the highest quality education available. However, a few purposeful actions allowed us to make this change:
Firstly, tap into any government funding or grants available. We work closely with organizations like Teach NYS, a project of the OU which advocates for government funding and resources, to help us secure thousands of dollars in extremely useful funding, helping subsidize various school improvement and safety needs. For example, both our schools recently received valuable funding from the state for STEM teacher reimbursement, elevating the quality of our STEM offerings for our students. This has helped us mitigate costs and improve quality, all without raising overhead.
Next, try to make wise choices regarding school spending. On a regular basis we remind ourselves and our staff what matters the most: the education of the students. We spend countless hours dissecting our school finances, trying to see how we can support our current and prospective parents who have made it clear that the cost of living, in addition to private school tuition, is becoming more difficult to balance. We strive to be a partner in alleviating these costs, not adding to the burden.
Finally, take action. States like Florida and Pennsylvania have made huge strides in making tuition affordable through scholarships. However, as we continue to fight and advocate for those same offerings here, we realized we needed to act. In our case, we took this bold move and lowered tuition. In both our schools, this move has come back to benefit us as well—in addition to bringing in new students, we are attracting families to our areas specifically because of school affordability. Some families are even taking this opportunity to pay it forwardusing their newfound savings to increase their donations to our schools.
Our hope is that schools everywhere take the steps needed to make Jewish day school and yeshivas an inclusive environment available to anyone seeking a rigorous dual curriculum for their children. Whether it’s a child who is now given the gift of a formal Jewish education, or a parent that now has a few thousand extra dollars to provide for their family, the future of Jewish life is dependent on us breaking down these barriers to safe, quality Jewish education.
Dr. Lea E. Goldstein is the principal of Derech HaTorah in Rochester and Raz Levin is the head of school at Brandeis Hebrew Academy in Lawrence.
