In response to the article about the Teach NJS meeting (“Are You Buckling Under the Weight of Day School Tuition?” April 15, 2018), I would like to share my views on the “investment” of Yeshiva tuition. It is no secret that the discussion of the Jewish school tuitions in the metropolitan area is a common conversation, often debated by irritated, hard-working parents who need to make a significant dent in their wallets in order to send their kids to a private school with a dual curriculum. From the point of view of a religious Jew, this is technically a “religious investment,” where you are sending your children to a school that prays in the morning, teaches Jewish values, has a kosher kitchen and has mandatory Judaic courses. On the other hand, there is the more secular-focused argument, that spending tens of thousands of dollars per kid per year will ultimately lead them to receiving a better education, which will get them into better colleges, to get better jobs, to make more money, etc. This is an “educational investment.” But what would the end game of a debatably better education be? So that they could send their kid to an expensive private school?

And what if your kid goes through all of high school, gets into an exorbitantly expensive college and cannot find a job coming out of college? Does that mean that the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent was a failed investment and that that money was misspent? Or was it a worthwhile investment because maybe it is just a religious investment and the child was able to grow up surrounded in Jewish culture and values?

I think these factors of “religious investment” vs. “educational investment” need to be considered tremendously when the conversation is discussed. What are you paying for and what are the expected returns of these investments?

Jonno Rosen

Student at the Frisch School