It is a well known and indisputable fact that a day school education is expensive. It is also a truism that day school education works. Every study done since the ’60s has demonstrated that a day school education is the most effective system of promoting Jewish involvement and a long-term connection to Judaism and the Jewish community. But it requires a substantial personal and communal investment.

In order to accomplish this goal, must it require an unreasonable burden for middle-class families? Orthodox and traditional Conservative families appreciate the value of this education and do whatever it takes to make it work. They make lifestyle sacrifices for their children’s future. We’ve all heard the litany of what families give up to afford day school tuition. We sympathize and empathize, and appreciate their dedication.

There is another group that we need to help. Jewish families who would like to send their children to day schools but see the financial burden as an insurmountable hurdle.

It’s been said that day school education is exclusively for the three “very’s”; the very rich, the very poor, and the very committed. The very rich can afford it, the very poor will get large financial aid packages, and the middle class sends their children because they are very committed and are reluctantly prepared to bear the financial burden that comes with it.

Is it possible to foster a targeted system in which potential day school families who are not willing to make tremendous financial sacrifices still enroll their children? Rabbi Hillel Adler, national director of school recruitment and marketing, Consortium of Jewish Day Schools, has a plan that seems to work. The best part of this plan is that it does not require a multimillion-dollar fund to make a difference. A scholarship between $1,000-$2,000 can make the difference between a child in a public school vs. a Jewish day school.

The Consortium of Jewish Day Schools (CoJDS) financed a targeted scholarship program in 2016 offering support to schools negotiating tuition for parents “on the fence” between choosing day school over public school for their children. Since then, CoJDS has provided 245 scholarships to 23 schools to help bridge the gap at the cost of $1,000-$2,000 per child, which was sponsored by one philanthropic family. In 2019 another family began a similar fund for the three day schools in Portland, Oregon, in a joint venture between the Jewish Federation of Portland and CoJDS. These grants provided the “tipping point” funding that kept these children in the schools.

Dr. Daniel Held and the UJA Federation of Toronto published a study on tuition incentive programs in North American Jewish day schools. Most, if not all of the incentive programs in this in-depth study are based on clearly defined qualifications (e.g., if your family has x income, you will receive a tuition break of xx dollars). The reasoning is that to create an equitable system, we need to stick to a clearly defined scale without special insider deals. While most of these incentive programs are successful, there are limits and shortcomings. The difficulty is the cost of a community-wide program.

Cities like Toronto and Seattle have generous visionaries who understand the value of day school education. But the $12,000,000+ that Toronto invests annually towards assistance to over 2,000 children or the $4,400,000 the Samis Foundation provides towards all 450 students in the Seattle schools is not cheap. It is also not realistic for smaller communities without such generous benefactors.

Another problem is that families who feel the final net tuition is still too high will go elsewhere (i.e., free public schools). This is especially true for the thousands of Israeli families who come to America from a country where Jewish education is free. On the other hand, a targeted initiative program has the following benefits:

• Much lower scholarship cost per student cost;
• Scholarships are only given to the most pressing cases;
• Negligible administrative costs;
• The principal/admissions director becomes the hero, not the enemy;
• The scholarship can be used as a bargaining chip to bring parents and tuition committees to a mutual agreement.

There are very few investments that can provide a 400-500% return annually. The $231,374 scholarship dollars CoJDS has distributed since 2016 has generated $1,201,320 in revenue dollars. According to the Portland Federation: “For roughly $21,000, we were able to retain 15 students in our day school system. At the same time, it brought in over $70,000 in additional needed revenue to the schools.” The additional costs schools incur by enrolling these students is negligible. In short, the schools have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Clearly something must be done. No one has all the answers, but the more incentives available, the better. Targeted tuition incentives such as the national program of CoJDS or smaller local models such as the Portland model can be a powerful tool in attracting families. If our community can establish such a program, we can turn the tide without breaking the bank.

Rabbi Dr. Wallace Greene, a veteran Jewish educator, has been advocating various programs for tuition reform for decades.