No, We Do Not Have A Tuition Crisis

I abhor, detest, despise and just plain hate the way that the word "crisis" is thrown around today. The minute a problem raises its head, someone will whip themselves into a frenzy and yell "Crisis!" It's akin to yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. All it does is start a panic.

We do not have a tuition crisis in the frum community today. What we have is an education problem. And tuition is only a symptom, not the disease. A large part of that education problem centers on yet another problem, that of lack of transparency on the part of yeshivas as regards their actual expenses and income.

Our yeshivas tell us a lot, but they show us virtually nothing. They tell us that money is tight and people who could be counted on for donations don't have the money to give. They tell us about parents in financial trouble who can't cover the cost of tuition for their children. They tell us about rising expenses for providing an education. But they show us nothing that would back up what they are saying. Our schools expect us to take everything they are telling us on trust. Well, why not? For decades that is exactly what we have done. And look where all that trust has gotten us.

It's more than time that we stop placing our efforts and our raised voices into complaining that tuition is too high. It's time that we place our organized efforts into demanding that the schools that count on our children--and our money--for their continued existence show us precisely where and how they are spending that money. Please don't show me petitions that demand a tuition freeze; instead, show me petitions that demand that the books be opened. Schools are quick to ask parents to open their books to the school when calculating how much parents can pay in tuition. Well, I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours.

A school in New Jersey has announced that it will have to close the school lunch program as a cost cutting measure. It is also considering selling off some of its athletic fields for the same reason. So how much will closing the lunch program actually save the school? What does the lunch program actually cost? The school has 700 students. Does it cost the school $1.00 a day per student to serve lunch? Remember that "lunch" includes the personnel to prepare that lunch, serve that lunch, and clean up after that lunch in addition to whatever food is served. Does lunch cost the school $2.00 per day per student? $3.00 per day? And what about any school personnel that also eat lunch in the school, such as teachers and administrators? Do those people pay for their lunch, or is it thrown in as a benefit because they work there? Is lunch on Friday the same as during the rest of the week?

Let's estimate the costs for that lunch program. 700 students plus 25 administrative personnel who also eat lunch in school. Let's make it $3.00 per day, and let's even make Friday a full lunch. That's a cost of $2175.00 per day for the lunch program, if you assume that all costs for that lunch are included. That's a cost of $10,875.00 per week for the lunch program. Because of vacations and holidays, let's say that program runs for 37 weeks during the year. That would make the price for the lunch program $402,375.00 for the year. If tuition for the school was in the $11,000.00 per student range, this would mean that it takes the full tuition money from 37 students to pay for the lunch program. So, 5% of the tuition money taken in is used for lunch.

Now here is the problem--the figures above are all guesswork. As long as a school does not make its actual income and expenses open no one can say how much lunch costs or how much would be saved by eliminating lunch. What if lunch only cost $2.00 a day per person being fed? What if lunch cost $4.00 or $5.00 per day per person being fed? What if there are more administrative personnel who should be counted in for free lunches? What if some of the students qualify for the subsidized federal food programs, so that the school's expenses for lunch are reduced? The only fact that we know for sure is that we don't know any of the facts.

Accountability is a key word in all business environments; it should also be a key word in our yeshivas. If we're going to expend effort and energy in doing something about the high cost of yeshivas then let's start where it makes sense to start--what are the yeshivas spending, on what and where is the money coming from? Let's not frame the issue as a tuition crisis, which puts the onus on us as parents. Let's frame the issue as a school problem. This is a forest and trees situation; we're looking at the "tree" that is tuition when we should be looking at the forest as a whole.

Are you a parent with children in a yeshiva? Are you upset by the high cost of that yeshiva education and don't know why it is costing this much? Do you know other parents who are also wondering where the money goes? Then unite your voices and get a petition signed by the school parent body that demands that the books be opened. And please, could we stop worrying about how this may impact our children's shidduchim somewhere down the road? I would imagine that having parents who are in mega debt or who have declared bankruptcy would have a greater impact on shidduchim. Do you daven in a shul that is in the community where the yeshiva your children attend is located? The rav of your shul is a contracted salaried employee of the shul. As his employers, shul members could and should ask that he make it publicly clear he supports his members in asking that a yeshiva open its books for perusal.

It's going to take clear heads to dig us out of our financial mess, not "Crisis!" yelling. It's going to take action, not grumbling. It's going to take work on everyone's part, not leaving it to someone else. Until we are willing to commit ourselves publicly and with sustained effort then we, too, are part of the problem, not part of the solution.