Project Ezrah, Tomchei Shabbos and other local tzedakah organizations have people working overtime to meet the demands of families staggering under the economic crunch suffocating the middle class since 2008. Everyone knows someone who is hurting, and everyone knows parents who are struggling, for the sake of their commitment to Orthodox Judaism to meet tuition bills while trying to keep their roofs over their heads. It is never any fun to put oneself through the tuition-reduction committee process in hopes of getting a scholarship or subsidy. It is downright humiliating, as anyone who has ever been through it can tell you.

That’s why the Moriah School deserves special kudos for taking a daring step and deciding to implement a sliding-scale tuition program that should offer families some sort of tuition relief. In addition to the decision on fees being made based on gross income, the calculation will also take into account how many children are in school and how much a family’s current tuition costs are.  Those who have been hoping for government school vouchers will have to face reality.  As Senator Loretta Weinberg said, it isn’t going to happen anytime soon. So thank you Moriah for offering parents a sane alternative to total despair.