I found last night's conversation distressing in ways that surprised me. Accusations of bad faith, dishonesty, status chasing, rich-people-pandering, and klal-money-wasting are pretty par-for-the-Twitter course, but they got to me, and I don't choose to go there again right now.
Instead, here's one more try at making the same point. Like you, I pay yeshiva day school tuition. One of my children graduated from SAR--the other four went to/go to other day schools, which have to be paid for. Total bill this year for three kids is ~$60,000.
Youngest two are in two different schools. 12-y.o. in Bais Yaakov that costs a little over $10,000/year. 10-y.o. in Centrist Orthodox school that costs two-and-a-half times that.
When youngest got hit in the face with a soccer ball, a school nurse assessed whether he had a concussion, and called him.
Bais Yaakov has a lovely (really) member of the office staff who hands out Tylenol.
Bais Yaakov has a lovely (really) member of the office staff who hands out Tylenol.
Youngest has professional, trained teachers with education and experience.
Bais Yaakov has many recent seminary graduates who will leave when they get engaged (sometimes mid-year.)
This BY invests a lot in training those teachers, and some of them are great. But it's different.
Bais Yaakov has many recent seminary graduates who will leave when they get engaged (sometimes mid-year.)
This BY invests a lot in training those teachers, and some of them are great. But it's different.
Youngest has a dedicated middle-school counselor who can help him navigate the transition to a new school, parents' divorce, rest of family life.
Bais Yaakov doesn't.
Bais Yaakov doesn't.
Youngest has art, music, Hebrew language taught by Israeli educators, robotics/tech lab.
His sister is so jealous.
His sister is so jealous.
Youngest is in a school known for the support it provides to kids with learning differences. I don't know how many people it employs, but Bais Yaakov does not devote the same resources to meeting the learning needs of every kid.
This isn't meant to knock Bais Yaakov. It is a school with a clear vision, a very strong and capable administration, and it is doing what it can with the resources it has. It has different resources, and it is doing different things.
The youngest's school also sent us a fancy branded fondue kit when he joined the school. You could think that's awesome (my kids did), or excessive. But either way: it's easy to say that tuition is too high, and we should cut swag and giveaways. But that's not where the cost is.
So that's what the conversation is about: Do we have too many counselors? Too much academic support? Is a nurse in the building all day an unnecessary luxury? What about art, music, robotics?
Is it that the funding model should be different?
These are all great questions. The tuition burden is real. Imchem anochi b'paying for it. I just think we have to talk about what the questions are, not what they aren't. Saying that "rich board members get the schools they want"--I'm not sure what the claim is, precisely,
(that is, I'm not sure what schools it's assumed that they want or are getting.) As someone who both sees it as a parent and as someone who sits in meetings about next year's budget numbers, that is where the money is, and where the questions have to be asked and answered.
And indeed, perhaps the answer is that it is an unaffordable luxury, or that we need a different model. I just want us to be clear on what the "it" is.
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