Another Answer to the Tuition Dilemma

I am not the first person to offer the following as a solution to the problem of tuition. Actually the people who have been offering the solution in the past few years aren't the first people either. The idea was floating around even thirty years ago. But all it has done is float.

The solution is basically a combination of public school and yeshiva; our children would be the responsibility of the public school system in the morning, for free, and then have yeshiva in the afternoon. From a financial point of view the yeshivot would cut their cost for teaching staff at least in half. Their supply budget would also be reduced. Yeshivot would go out of the business of secular education, something they aren't too happy to be in to begin with. Why has this remained only talk?

First, this idea has already been seen in practice many years ago. In Williamsburg, when I arrived in New York, many of the girls in the area attended public school. There were so many of them that basically they had their own classrooms in the public school they attended. Whatever the community deemed necessary as far as a yeshiva education took place after public school hours. Keep in mind that the chasidishe community in general does not "hold" with education for their girls, secular or Jewish. Since the government mandates education for both sexes, let the government pay for it was the general idea.

Also back many years ago people would start out a conversation with "They should be paying us what it would cost them to educate our kids. After all, what would they do if we all came down in the first week of September and registered all of our children in their public schools? There would be absolutely no room available in the schools." We are not talking about school vouchers here. We are talking about counting the yeshivot as legitimate venues of education, requiring direct funding for the secular portion of the children's education.

Today asking the question of what would happen to the local public schools if all students presently in yeshiva were to enroll there has some import. What would happen? In the areas with heavy Jewish populations the result would be chaos for the Board of Education. In Brooklyn alone dozens of new schools would need to be built to accommodate the influx of additional students. But what would happen until those schools were built?

The local schools simply could not accommodate the frum students, but they would be required to accommodate them by law. As has been done before, they would need to rent space until money and location could be found to build the new required schools. We are talking about millions and millions of dollars here. They would also need to find and hire teaching and administrative staff for these schools. Add more millions of dollars. Then there is the required supplies and equipment such as computers and science labs. Add more millions. And while they were finding the money and the staff what would happen to all the registered new students? The Board would still be required to educate them, even though there is no way that they could. The teacher's union has already settled the idea of maximum class size, so they couldn't just try and squeeze us into the existing facilities. Many schools are already on the "shift" idea, whereby some students attend school in the morning and another shift comes in the afternoon because of lack of space. Anyone know how to spell lawsuits? Add to the city's costs the cost of the litigation they would be forced into.

One problem is the separation of church and state. Having the city or the state give funds directly to the yeshivot to pay for the cost of educating the yeshiva students in secular subjects would violate this principle, at least on paper. It is already being "violated" in many ways: yeshivot get NYSTL textbooks; yeshivot get funding for breakfast and lunch programs; yeshiva students get school buses; yeshivot qualify for computers to be used in classrooms etc. And yes, to get all the services they are getting the yeshivot have to state that they do not discriminate according to sex, race or national origin. Technically, if a non-Jewish student from Haiti wanted to register at Chaim Berlin the school would have to admit him, as long as he could pay the tuition asked and would abide by the code of behavior of the school.

The problem is not really one of church and state but one of public versus private. There are certain basic requirements regarding secular subjects that private schools must meet, but the private schools decide when, where, how much and how often. Teaching staff are not required to meet the same standards that public school teachers must meet. There is far less oversight of private schools then there is of public schools. And that is the crux of the problem. Not even if they received millions of dollars in funding, not even if all their limudei chol teachers were provided for them, not even if all the special services that students in the City are entitled to would suddenly materialize--like free speech therapy and hearing therapy and special education--will the yeshivot give up their oversight privileges.

For one thing, limudei kodesh might need to be moved to the afternoons. For another, the time devoted to limudei chol would most certainly be extended. Subject matter that has been skirted around would become part of the curriculum.

Okay, if this is all true, then why am I suggesting registering in public school as a solution to the tuition problem? Klal Yisroel, as a group, needs to learn to be a better poker player. We are actually holding a pair of open aces--the sheer number of students whom the public school system would need to accommodate and accommodate now. So the Board of Education thinks we are bluffing? We wouldn't really register? Then register! Note: I didn't say attend yet. The absolute chaos created might be enough to get the state and the city to negotiate a "truce." And if they call our bluff? Attend, or try to attend, for three days, for one week. In Brooklyn, at least, doing so would basically shut down the school system. Maybe we might "win" the "whole pot" or maybe we would have to split that "pot" with the state, but we are definitely holding a winning hand.

While the debate on school vouchers for students to choose the school of their choice continues and will continue for a long time yet, we have a different tool that we are not trying. Yes, yeshivot might have to meet certain standards as regards secular education. For the yeshivot that are already meeting or surpassing these standards there would be no problem. And frankly, for those who are not meeting the standards it would be of benefit to their students if they did so. How would you like to cut your tuition bill or know that when you are going to have to pay tuition it will be lower? How about cutting $3000 to $5000 off that bill? How about even a $2000 reduction? And what if it were lots more? Even with all the full scholarships that a large number of yeshiva students receive, if the yeshivot were relieved of the expenses of limudei chol or a large part of those expenses, tuition would have to drop.

Until we try we will never know if we could have "won" something. We are holding bargaining tools that are getting rusty from disuse.