See letter below from the president of the Board of Yavneh:
I am writing to you to share some thoughts about a serious issue affecting our school and New Jersey’s Orthodox Jewish community.
Education Affordability is a major issue affecting our families and our schools. The Orthodox Union has formed NJVotes, a campaign dedicated to increasing voter participation in every election and by doing so making our community known to our Legislators and obtaining their support for increased State funding for day schools and families.
This year we have a unique opportunity. New Jersey's entire 120-member Legislature and Governor are up for re-election in the June Primary. Because this election does not coincide with a Presidential race, voter turnout is usually low, typically less that 12%. Therefore, our community’s votes will carry exceptional weight.
Our entire school community needs to vote in the June 4th Primary. In order to vote, you must be registered as either a Democrat or a Republican. Regardless of how you cast your ballot, politicians will see that our community is engaged. Only when we increase our voter turnout will our elected officials pass the legislation needed to alleviate the cost of Yeshiva tuition.
The job of an educator in the Yeshiva day school community is twofold. First, we try to instill the requisite knowledge for success in our highly competitive world. Second, we try to act as role models to form their religious, moral, and ethical compasses, ensuring the continuation of Jewish values.
Yavneh is proud to say that we take this responsibility very seriously.
We ask parents to help our school by registering with a political party and voting in the Primary Election June 4th. We also ask that parents continue to be positive role models for their children and take action by registering other community members or volunteering to help NJVotes at phone banks or events. Visitnjvotes.org, call 201-416-7741, or visit the OU office here in Teaneck at 696 Palisade Ave.
Please recognize the importance of this campaign and our responsibility toregister by May 14th and vote in the June 4th Primary. If we want to effectuate meaningful change our entire school community must vote in June. Please let me know if you have any questions about this issue and its centrality to the continued strength and growth of our community. I look forward to working with every one of you on this vital initiative. Thank you for your participation in this school-wide effort.
Thank you
Eric Fremed , Yavneh President-
Logging you in...
End Welfare · 623 weeks ago
Buster · 623 weeks ago
Zev Mo Green · 623 weeks ago
Zev Mo Green · 623 weeks ago
Mark 50p · 623 weeks ago
End Welfare · 623 weeks ago
Politics · 623 weeks ago
GUEST 3 · 623 weeks ago
It is good to vote. It can only help. I just do not agree with the OU and others that it helps as much as they think it does.
Guest 4 · 623 weeks ago
End Welfare · 623 weeks ago
Politics · 623 weeks ago
public · 623 weeks ago
Ira · 623 weeks ago
Teacher99 · 623 weeks ago
Entitled? Who are you to say who is entitled or not?
Are low income families entitled to endless unemployment, up to $48k in non-repayable mortgage relief and tons of other wealth transfer payments that none of us voted for?
Are we "entitled" to ridiculously high property taxes that go, to a great extent to one of the most expensive and least productive school systems in the entire state?
If the OU can get money for yeshivas, go for it. Perhaps you are independently wealthy, but the vast majority of Orth Jews are suffering under heavy taxation and the expenses of being Orthodox.
Zev Mo Green · 623 weeks ago
As far as property taxes go, yes, they are very high, especially in Northern New Jersey. Again, there are many reasons for that, but this has to do specifically with the local school district. If you want to address that, you may want to look at the budget (http://www.teaneckschools.org/cms/lib2/NJ01001582/Centricity/Domain/234/User_%20Friendly_Budget_032713_PublicHearing.pdf), how much is spent on things like busing (a very contentious subject indeed), and ask why this entitlement isn't on your chopping block of fiscal responsibility?
Surely, the cost of being an Orthodox Jew in Teaneck is extremely expensive, and overall family costs are enormous (believe me, I get it), but understand that it entirely voluntary. It isn't the responsibility of the town to provide compensation for your choice. And driving your (the communal we) children to school, because you choose to send somewhere else, shouldn't be anybody else's responsibility but your own. Asking the BOE, and the students of the system as a result, to take money (i.e. instruction) out of the budget so that our kids can get busing, or in the case of the OU, to offset costs of voluntary private school, only further weakens the public school system.
Look, I understand, you are staring at huge costs for school. But if your argument is not to 'Rob Peter to pay Paul', you certainly shouldn't do it at the expense of the core public education system, since then the only option left is to go entirely private for all. That may be your desired goal, but there are a whole lot of us, who have gone through the public education system, and think that would be disastrous for everyone, and do nothing to control the overall cost of education.
I have constantly been outspoken on behalf of public education, and it amazes me how often I have been contacted by people in agreement with me, but who are frightened to speak up. The system is broken, and everyone knows this is not sustainable. Just wait until this group starts sending kids to High School and College... this is a full-blown crisis. The OU trying to offset costs will do nothing for people facing a 50k+ tuition bill, nor will ignoring it (the current model) while people are literally struggling to afford basic living expenses. Blaming the poor, or the unemployed, or people on food stamps is such an incoherent way to address a voluntary expenditure under the guise of some kind of oppressive social disorder, otherwise known as the desire for a society to offer a quality education to everyone, regardless of social standing or familial benevolence.
If you were to avail yourself of the public school, you would be getting a tremendous bang for your "heavy taxation" buck. You choose not to take that opportunity. You can't blame anyone else but yourself for making a bad fiscal choice, if that is what you are experiencing (you said "suffering"). The failure of an alternative method, by community leaders who know of the plight of many of us, is astoundingly absurd. Mind you, this is also a political philosophy/religion, where anything publicly-run is Socialism, therefore should be destroyed entirely, so there is a component to the silence as well. That and flat-out bigotry/fear... Just throwing that out there.
I am all for streamlining, and fiscal responsibility, as long as it doesn't effect the quality of education being offered to public school students. I can go on an entire riff on the need for the middle-school to have a mandatory computer science program, but that is a different post. But until we enable Orthodox parents to speak about these things publicly (as we can see with the many pseudonymous and guest names on every blog), without the fear of condemnation and communal retaliation, this problem will persist, and families will indeed suffer.
This has nothing to do with the quality of Yeshivas, or the religious instruction they offer. This has to do with the argument of costs, and how the current system needs to address a growing number of families. The subsidy idea is not an answer, but a continuance of the problem. Just my two cents.
Daniel Rosen · 623 weeks ago
Textbook funding is an example. If your local school is given x dollars based on the expectation that there are 100 eligible students in the district, and a private school documents that 5 of those eligible students go to it and not the public school, the private school gets the money to provide the text books for those 5 students. The same is true for some federal title money, I believe - the government makes funds available to eligible studeents regardless of where they attend school.
Daniel Rosen · 623 weeks ago
I don't know why I keep getting an error that my comment is too long as it is substantially shorter than others' I see but I am following instructions and posting it as a split message.
Zev Mo Green · 623 weeks ago
Daniel Rosen · 623 weeks ago
Parent · 623 weeks ago
I too became tired of everyone complaining. So, we switched our kids out of their school over to JFS and in the process saved about 40% on tuition. No one forced me to do this and in fact, we could have continued to pay the enormous cost of tuition. But the stress of worrying about needing a new roof, or a new oven. How can we make such a great salary and spent 62K to send kids to elementary school, yet worry about affording a new oven??? Something is messed up there.
High school is coming eventually and my tuition will be over 100K. So we made a change now in order to do our best to save up for that expense. We are all adults and we have to make smart prudent decisions. Complaining is not going to get us anywhere.
Parent · 623 weeks ago
Teacher99 · 623 weeks ago
Money is fungible. You admit that it isn't being spent wisely. Who's to say that all the monies going to TPS should be going there? You are espousing the old failed liberal philosophy of throwing money at problems in the hopes that this solves them. It generally doesn't; frequently, it makes them worse!
I am not opposed to public schools. However I do think there should be some re-evaluation of how OUR tax dollars are being spent. For example, perhaps a portion of this money could fund secular studies at religious schools. Perhaps we don't need so many custodians.Perhaps we need to expand the business climate in Teaneck. The money has to come from somewhere. Every special interest group petitions the govt to get money for their cause. Why should we be any different??????
When African Americans petition for money, it's called empowerment. According to End Welfare, when Jews do it, it's called false entitlement.
Mark 50p · 623 weeks ago
Zev Mo Green · 623 weeks ago
And that is the problem right there. At least I now know that it is a philosophy I am dealing with in the discussion. Now, no one is saying to simply throw money at it, that is a common straw man. You are correct that money != results, but there is a correlation to removing essential services == worse results. If you have been at all involved with the budget over the last few years, you would know that many important programs have been cut to provide busing to those who don't use the system.
The problem is, as you said, money is fungible. Sending public money to fund a private system raises several red flags for cross-over, particularly if the curricula are different, and teachers are compensated differently. Infrastructure costs overlap, and 'creative accounting' problems aren't unheard of in private 'closed-book' institutions, as we have seen over the last few decades. No matter how well-intentioned the institution is, money will be going to non-secular infrastructure. That should not be allowed, especially since taxes are already deducted for those institutions and some employees. The primary responsibility is to fund public education, not divert money from it (which reduces offerings and opportunities), to subsidize a personal option which is already heavily subsidized through tax policy.
You have an option. Private school is a choice. Don't ask me as a taxpayer to pay for your exclusionary option at the expense of the inclusive one.
And all veiled racism aside, I don't know what you are referring to when you mentioned 'African Americans petition for money'. Can you explain a little deeper so I can address it directly?
High School Dad · 623 weeks ago
Our leaders are spineless as they all know that the Yeshiva system is headed for collapse yet they won't don anything significant to prepare for that reality.
Politics · 623 weeks ago
Just Saying · 623 weeks ago
true solution · 623 weeks ago
Joe · 623 weeks ago
public · 623 weeks ago
GUEST 3 · 623 weeks ago
B G · 623 weeks ago
GUEST 3 · 623 weeks ago
B G · 623 weeks ago
Zev Mo Green · 623 weeks ago
GUEST 3 · 623 weeks ago
charter · 623 weeks ago
Teacher99 · 623 weeks ago
Zev Mo Green · 622 weeks ago
There may be situations where the school board is completely unable or unwilling to make logical productive education decisions for the district, and for whatever reason they cannot be unseated. But generally speaking, what makes charter schools appealing is the smaller class environment, more hands on approach, and the greater flexibility to address student discipline problems if they arise. This can be achieved through the public school as well, as they have in many locations, and is part of the reason why charter schools tend to not have any consistent statistical advantage as a whole. There is a while range of reasons why this is a highly debated subject, and I don't want to get derailed by that. And I say all this, reserving the right to be proven wrong.
Now, the real question you ask is why would I (kinda) support that, but not the OU-like idea? Well, first, it's a religious school, and as you said, money is fungible.
-Second, a Charter school is significantly more egalitarian, so the funds are better distributed among two institutions, rather than 15 schools, further slicing that dollar amount up.
-Third, generally, private school is not 100% covered by the 'subsidy', so the remainder is still significant for most people. As a result, those families that can afford private school are usually those with higher educational backgrounds and parent involvement. That is a tremendous blow to the rest of the school district, especially if you are an advocate for a Differentiated Instruction Model. Removing a significant portion of the total student body (last I heard, about 50% of the current total TPS population) has a massive effect on the classroom dynamics, and cheapens the diversity that makes one ready for the world we live in.
-Fourth, the Charter has a finite amount of seats (250-300, let's say) to take away from the Public school (4,000+), so the impact is less than the OU option.
There are many divergent topics, of course, but the primary responsibility here should be the best education bang for the buck. Clearly that is the Public School system, from a dollar-to-dollar perspective, but I am sure others would disagree with me. I hope that clarified my response, Teacher99.
Zev Mo Green · 622 weeks ago
charter · 622 weeks ago
Zev Mo Green · 622 weeks ago