I couldn't find too much information online about the local lef Al-Ghazaly High School, but the Annur school in Schenectady I found the tuition to be a fraction of what we pay for local Yeshiva Day Schools.
I did calculations for a hypothetical family of 5 called the Goldbergs & found out how much they would be paying to send their 3 kids to a local YDS. The prices ranged from about $30,000 to $60,000 per year.
At Annur they would be paying......$1,195! No that's not a typo. They even qualify for a 5% reduction if they pay up front.
[Editor's note: That may be amount of each of the 10 installments. The wording on the website was a little vague. Still, $11,950 per year is a lot less than we pay. They must be getting serious voluntary contributions. I think they take Zakah more seriously than we take Ma'aser]
They have a full 180 days in the school calendar despite having to take off 3 days for Eid Al-Adha.
And what I like personally is that the budget is right there on the website. Both revenue and expenses. There is nothing to hide! No need for bloggers to speculate. I know some local YDS board members have suggested doing that but apparently they were overruled.
Allahu Achbar!
Thursday, June 21, 2012
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Guest · 666 weeks ago
Yeshiva_Dad 69p · 666 weeks ago
Finally some transparency!
One thing I noted quickly, financial aid is 10% of tuition obligations, not as much as some people on this blog seem to think.
Mark · 666 weeks ago
Yeshiva_Dad 69p · 666 weeks ago
"Need-based financial aid scholarship grants total approximately $1.3 million. That amount has been relatively consistent in each of the last few years, accounting for approximately 10.5% of gross tuition revenue. Approximately 23% of children of RYNJ families received financial aid of some amount with a financial aid median grant of approximately $4,700 per child. As shown above, financial aid of $1.3 million was granted through our financial aid scholarship program and the Yeshiva raised approximately $1 million in voluntary contributions. The remaining $300,000 provided in financial aid had a net impact on total parent tuition-related obligations of approximately $300 per child."
Costs · 666 weeks ago
I know MANY families hoping SACS is approved. It is not due to the fact they believe SACS is perfect. It is far from perfect historically, and all programs are far from perfect...however, it will be a realistic option for many families to consider, without seeking scholarship, rabbi discretionary funds and other sources to cover TUITION.
JS (hello) · 666 weeks ago
What I think this indicates is that yeshivas are simply more expensive all around - it's not the percentage of the budget going to salary, it's the fact that every single number is inflated.
In other words everything at a yeshiva is "bigger" or "nicer" - so tuition is larger, teacher compensation is larger, the building is nicer, the facility is larger, etc.
The takeaway, I think, is this: trimming the budget here and there is only going to produce marginal gains. The only way to really reduce tuition is to simply apply an x% haircut across the board to every single expense line.
RYNJ is spending $13,111,839 on 986 students (2010/2011). That's $13,298/student.
Annur is spending $556,637 on about 142 students (2010/2011). That's $3,919/student.
I think that says about everything you need to know about why tuition is high.
JS (hello) · 666 weeks ago
The website indicates payment in 10 installments. I highly doubt people are paying $40 a month. Also, the revenues ($386,464) make no sense if you assume a total annual tuition of just $390/student.
Also makes sense given what I wrote above. Both schools spend per student nearly exactly what they take in per student and in nearly the same ratios. Yeshivas just take in a LOT more money because they spend more on everything.
Yeshiva_Dad 69p · 666 weeks ago
You may be right about that being a monthly payment. I looked at it again and its a little vague. I'll update the post.
guest · 666 weeks ago
1) It seems they are fastly paying down their building debt, to possibly build a new building in about 5-6 years.
2) They don't do that much outside fundraising. Their 1.5 million in fundraising (in the operating expenses sections) includes about 500k of fundraising from scrip and dinner fees -which are MANDATORY, and then another 500k from the scholarship dinner (which they go back to the parent body), and another 100k plus from nnjkids (which just hands them a blank check), 29k from UJA (another blank check), and some journal ads and a chinese auction. Even hiring a professional fundraiser and giving them 20% commission on new leads, would be beneficial.
3) There appears to be 0 endowment.
4) There doesn't appear to be any real fundraising plan other than charging tuition, and then asking parents for more money.
5) 5:1 teacher to student ratio costs money, and if thats what you want, its going to cost about 14k a year per student.
6) Even if government aid was added, they would just add costs, rather than lower anything.
guest · 666 weeks ago
JS (hello) · 666 weeks ago
No comments on my thoughts above? Why are yeshivas spending 4-5 times as much as Annur per student?
Yeshiva_Dad 69p · 666 weeks ago
Please put your comment on the previous post since it's off the topic of this post. Thanks.
Yeshiva_Dad 69p · 666 weeks ago
I have no idea. $3,919 per student is far less than even the public schools, even outside the metro area.