WITH the encouragement and participation of a growing number of yeshivot and day schools across North America, the Orthodox Union is moving ahead with a two-pronged approach to respond to the crisis in Jewish education in the current economic environment.
The results will be noticeable as early as the beginning of the school year in September.
The two aspects of the plan are assisting the schools in making savings in non-academic areas while finding new sources of income at a time of reduced philanthropic giving; and providing an alternative to parents who cannot afford to pay annual tuition for each child by establishing a network of schools that offer a strong basic education but without a complete complement of programs such as are offered by day schools now.
The first component is progressing rapidly, with the OU in close communication with some 135 schools across the continent whose administrators are enthusiastic about the plan and are committed to involvement in some or all aspects for the upcoming school year.
These schools participated in a conference call following Passover in which these plans were discussed and updated.
Regarding the second component, some local communities, most notably Englewood, NJ, have begun a discussion on opening an alternative yeshiva in time for the 2010-11 school year.
The dual plans are being guided by Rabbi Saul Zucker, a former yeshiva high school principal and now director of the department of day school and educational services of the OU, and his assistant director, Rabbi Cary Friedman.
Rabbi Zucker recently spoke at the OU West Coast Division in Los Angeles and elaborated on both aspects of the plan for the California audience.
Both proposals were received enthusiastically by the educators and lay leaders present, he said.
The plan were introducing to the schools is not cutting corners within the box, but its outside the box a radical impact in terms of savings, Rabbi Zucker said. We are prepared to present this plan to any community that is interested.
COMPONENTS of the plan are:
Part one:
- Nationwide health insurance.
The OU is working with a major insurer on a plan for yeshiva day schools. Rabbi Zucker estimates that the potential savings for any given school over the course of the year is in the tens of thousands of dollars.
- Energy cost-cutting measures.
A switch to solar energy has already presented one school in New Jersey with a potential savings of $80,000, Rabbi Zucker says, emphasizing that schools will incur little or no costs in the conversion, through arrangements worked out by the OU and a provider.
- Grant writing:
The OU has identified a grant writing firm that has successfully written proposals resulting in more than $2.5 million in grants to day schools.
The firm is available to help schools with specific strategies to obtain grants for their programs.
Schools can promote their own programs, or partner with other schools or groups in getting the grants.
- Revenue-generating OU toolbar.
It is revenue-generating because every time a person enters the Internet through the portal of the OU toolbar and performs a search (for airline tickets, shoes, books, etc.), corporate sponsors (who pay the search engine to advertise their websites at or near the top of the results list) pay a small amount into a fund that goes to the OU education fund for direct allocation to the yeshivot.
Every cent collected, after the minimal administrative costs charged by the company that hosts the toolbar, will go directly to support day schools.
The OU does not charge any administrative fee nor does it retain any of the money collected.
A similar model toolbar raises hundreds of thousands of dollars per month for the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
The OU is available to help each community set up a Kehilla Fund whereby as many members as possible of the local Orthodox community (with a goal of 100%) voluntarily participate in a fixed monthly contribution to support their local yeshivot, whether they have children attending or not.
The average target, according to Rabbi Zucker, is $30 per family per month, which is collected as an automatic debit or credit from a checking account.
The program is designed in cooperation with Torah Umesorah Mesorah, the organization of the yeshiva system, and Agudath Israel of America.
PART Two:
Within the next few years, annual tuition increases will not be able to sustain themselves, Rabbi Zucker says.
The financial burden will come crashing down on both parents and schools. Some schools may go out of business; some parents may have to pull their children from Jewish schools and send them to public schools, a process that is already beginning to happen.
The concept of the reduced tuition school will operate as follows:
- class size of 25, not 15-18;
- no fixed aides to every classroom in the lower grades;
- no after-school extracurricular programs unless staffed by volunteers;
- a cooperative model of education in which parents sign on to giving four hours per month in providing services to the school in different ways;
- teachers salaries to remain competitive with the market;
- A computer lab will be available but not one with absolute star-quality cutting-edge equipment.
Rabbi Zucker acknowledges that the presence of such a school in the community can create a caste system.
Local rabbis must deal with such potential sources of discord by emphasizing Jewish values.
The new school may also bring about concern on the part of administrators of the full cost school, who might be under the impression that their institution may be threatened.
Rabbi Zucker says:
The proposal for the new schools is meant to complement, not supplant, existing schools. In fact, a reduced cost school will help to reduce tuition in the current schools since full-paying parents will not have to cover as much of the cost of scholarships as they currently do.
