Technology to Reduce Costs?

The Digital Day School from Jewish Daily Forward on Vimeo.

At Yavneh's Q&A in December, Rabbi Knapp said that while he is a big proponent of technology, because of its potential to educate children in an engaging way, he and the Board do not see it as a means of reducing costs.  Take a look at the video.  Seems that now he's changed his tune.  Maybe He'atid really is on to something.

Guest Post: JFS Open House

The Jewish Foundation School of Staten Island invites all prospective parents to an Open House on Sunday, February 12 at 8:00 PM at the home of Uri and Devra Gutfreund in Bergenfield. To RSVP, email lists@greengart.com.

·        JFS is affordable: tuition is roughly half the cost of most Bergen County day schools

·        JFS is established: JFS has openings in grades K - 8 and a 57 year track record of delivering on the modern Orthodox goal of integrating Torah and yirat shamayim with excellent secular education

·        JFS is high tech: computers are used to assess student progress in secular studies, smartboards are used in select classes, and the developer of torahskills.org teaches at JFS

·        JFS speaks Hebrew: JFS features an Advanced Ivrit Program and an emphasis on the importance of Medinat Yisrael

·        JFS is convenient: hours are friendlier for working parents (grades K-3 have an extended day with after-school homework supervision), and door-to-door transportation is included (transportation times are often no longer than the bus to "local" schools)

·        JFS is growing: there are currently Teaneck/Bergenfield children in grades 1 through 7, and additional children are already planning on enrolling for the 2012-13 school year

·        JFS gets results: the combination of a warm learning environment and high academic standards results in graduates attending top area high schools

Learn how your child will be inspired to grow in Torah and challenging academics. The Principal and Vice Principal look forward to meeting you and answering your questions. JFS has been providing affordable day school tuitions for 57 years. RSVP by emailing lists@greengart.com and come see what it’s all about.

For more information, visit the school web site at http://www.jewishfoundationschool.org 

Is Tuition "Tzedakah Deductible"?

כִּי תְכַלֶּה לַעְשֵׂר אֶת-כָּל-מַעְשַׂר תְּבוּאָתְךָ בַּשָּׁנָה הַשְּׁלִישִׁת שְׁנַת הַמַּעֲשֵׂר  וְנָתַתָּה לַלֵּוִי לַגֵּר לַיָּתוֹם וְלָאַלְמָנָה וְאָכְלוּ בִשְׁעָרֶיךָ וְשָׂבֵעוּ.

Has anyone discussed with a Rabbi what portion of Yeshiva tuition, if any, could count towards our required Tzedakah contributions?

It's generally accepted that the 10% requirement is based on our "after tax" income.  but perhaps it should also be after-tuition since according to most Orthodox rabbis yeshiva tuition is an obligation.

But perhaps some of it should not only be deductible, but a credit towards tzedaka.  After all, some of the tuition dollars (the amount is debatable & varies by school) is used to help those in need get a scholarship.  

And what about the portion that goes towards Torah study.  Isn't Torah study considered tzedakah?  Even the money that goes towards secular study should perhaps be considered tzedakah if, according to your Rabbi, its a mitzvah to send your child to a day school all day, rather than just a talmud torah, (because it keeps your child from being influenced by the non-frum world, or for whatever other reason).

If anyone has discussed this with a Rabbi before, or would like to now, I'd like to hear what he has to say.  I would ask myself but I think most Rabbis would be reluctant to respond to an anonymous blogger.

OU to the Rescue

Earlier this month the presidents of local shuls had a meeting at Keter Torah where one of the items on the Agenda was the Day School affordability issue.  Josh Pruzansky of the OU spoke about how tuition can only be significantly lowered when state or federal governments institute a voucher program for private schools.  Dr. Simcha Katz, president of the OU,  said as much on the OU Blog.  He suggests more community involvement in politics to help push that agenda.  Here are some excerpts:

Once Orthodox communities establish a robust political voice, we will be able to more effectively promote legislation. The OU/IPA works to get legislation passed in a number of ways. IPA professionals craft new legislative initiatives and reach out to diverse coalition partners from other faith groups and ethnic organizations to support our initiatives. ...

One community seeks vouchers, another prefers a tax credit, and yet another could benefit from creative fixes on the federal level...

We need you—whether you are the parent or grandparent of a day school child, a shul president or a community leader—to make a genuine commitment to political activism and engagement. We need you to reach out to us so that we can provide you with political know-how to help effect school reform in your community...

If you would like to volunteer to act as a coordinator in your community for one of the initiatives I have described, please call our IPA Washington office at 202.513.6484.

I support this concept wholeheartedly.  However, I just don't know if in today's political climate, with all levels of government looking for ways to cut back, we would be able to push for increased government spending on private schools.  We certainly won't be able to cut into the public school budget without starting a major war.  Maybe this can be more of a long term strategy that will bear fruit in a better economy with less talk of "austerity."

Beautiful Building But...

In these times of financial strain should we really be investing so much in high-end buildings?  Donors usually contribute the bulk of the costs for these capital improvements but significant portions of it come from the Building Fund that all parents have to pay in to.

I'm not saying Noam didn't need a new building.  They certainly needed more classrooms and a "unified campus," but did everything need to be so high end and "state of the art?"  Of course donors want their names on sexy projects that make everyone ooh and aah but they really need to be told politely that money they would be helping the cause of Torah education much more if they donated more towards everyday things like paying for teachers and staff, so all of those costs wouldn't have to come from tuition.

Don't even get me started on the Frisch building!

Have a Great Yeshiva Week (and a half)

We've been at it for a month now & I think we've had mostly positive discussions about how to pay for Jewish & secular education for our children.  Thank you to all the readers for making this blog a success.  A special thanks to all those who contributed guest posts and/or comment regularly. For the most part I think we have disseminated our ideas in a respectful tone.

Readership and comments have gone down significantly from the time we started the blog.  This is primarily because of the new format we're using where people have to log in and use screen names.  People now have to put in a little effort and sacrifice some anonymity in order to comment.  This means less comments, and by extension less readers, but less name-calling and improved quality of the comments.  I think the trade-off is worth it.

One thing that I'm finding a little annoying is the "threading."    This is when the comments are indented to allow for separate conversations within 1 post.  Problem is you can't quickly see which are the latest comments by scrolling to the bottom.  Now that we all have screen names we can have multiple conversations without the "threading" feature and without having to respond to other comments by calling them 5:45 or 7:31.  I'm curious to see how everyone feels about eliminating the "threading" feature before taking it off.  Also, feel free to give any other feedback about how I can improve this blog.

I'll try to take a little break from posting until the break is over, if I can manage to keep my opinions to myself for that long.

For those of us working hard so we can afford our tuition bills or staying home to conserve funds I applaud you.  For those who are on vacation, enjoy it!  See you when you get back!

Guest Post: Homeschooling

  At first, we thought we were crazy.  And everyone else that we talked to didn't disagree. But after 5 years of homeschooling our four children - initially because we had no choice, and now even where we have great local schools available - we think we've made the right choice.  In fact, anyone who has at least one parent home most of the time can do the same.  Not every homeschooling family approaches the process of education in the same way that we have - some are more structured, and some are less structured - but the mature and confident children that we've met in our homeschooling community here have given us confidence that we're on the right track.

  My husband and I began homeschooling in Tokyo, Japan where we were living for a year as our oldest son was 5 and his younger brother was 3.  

There were no Jewish schools in the area and we felt it important that we teach our son the rudiments of a Jewish life.  So before we left we asked our school teacher friends what skills they thought 5 year olds should have - basic reading in Hebrew and English, addition and subtraction, and so on - and set out a rough guide for the year. It was fun to work on art projects, to teach the aleph beis, and to take field trips in the Kanto region, and we thought the year went reasonably well. When we returned to the States, the nearest Jewish day school was over an hour away each way, and we decided to keep homeschooling.  This time, we were fortunate to discover a treasure trove of free materials available to us, ranging from the very deep and broad Chinuch.org website (which has literally thousands of teacher created lesson plans), the Chicago-based Walder Education Pavilion, and a number of schools willing to share their curricula with us.  

Now (in January 2012) we homeschool even though we live in the DC metro area and have a number of excellent schools nearby to choose from.  

  As time has gone on, we've certainly experienced challenges, ranging from simple ones (which should take priority: learning Japanese or Latin?) to more deep ones (days when our kids simply don't want to do work, and we have to cajole them or abandon plans for the day).  But we've found benefits from our homeschooling lifestyle and approach that we find lacking in the standard approach.

  First, we can set the philosophic foundations for our childrens' education, and don't have to spend time either explaining why we don't agree with their teachers (always a dangerous line to cross) or allowing them to be influenced by approaches not representative of our own hashkafa.  So if we think that our children should go to college, we can make it clear to them what our goals are; alternatively, if our target is several years of post high school yeshiva learning, we can create an environment conducive to it.  For families hoping to do both, parents can accelerate the high school track so that 16 or 17 year olds can head to Israel - as several of our family friends have done.  

  Next, we find the homeschooling lifestyle to provide tremendous flexibility.  This is important because we have made a number of choices in sports, activities, and extra curricular activities which would simply not fit into the standard 8 am-4 pm, school day and homework encountered by most observant families.  Our oldest son has time to attend kendo (Japanese fencing) lessons late in the evening with excellent instructors, our middle son can walk to tae kwon do practice several times a week (during the middle of the day), our daughter can attend ballet lessons nearby (in the late afternoon), and our kids can also do jobs that we think important for building up personal responsibility (like walking dogs for families in our neighborhood).  We also regularly travel domestically and internationally, and we can move our curriculum and our school wherever we need, whether Honolulu, West Lafayette, Silver Spring, Tokyo, or Chicago (all places we've lived in the past few years).

  Third, we think that our school approach provides our kids with a strong education - not because we're trained or licensed teachers (we're not), but because we have thought about what skills we want them to have and have worked with others to do our best to provide training in those areas.  We also don't have to waste time getting classes to settle down, teaching to the middle of a class of 30 kids (where is that, exactly?), or teaching to the test.  We teach the kids davening (with the older ones attending davening nearby with minyanim), Chumash and Rashi, Mishnayos, dikduk, and Jewish history, along with a curriculum of reading and writing, history, science, English, and mathematics (using a self-paced program).  We have "checked" our oldest son's progress against the rest of the world, and thank G-d found that he was doing fine (in a number of the categories on his standardized test, he received PHS, or Post High School, as his evaluation).  We generally start our day by 9 am and have most of the work done by 3 pm with an extended lunch break.  On some days, the kids mess around, and the work gets done later, and we're willing to work on Sundays and continue working during the summer and winter times when kids in standard schools might be "on break."  We go to museums, have social activities with other families, serve as rabbi and rebbetzin for a local shul, and participate in a chesed group.  Our homeschooling also means that the kids  spend time with adults, children, the elderly, and people from a number of different age groups - just like real life.

  Finally, and this is perhaps the least important part of the decision for us, homeschooling is less expensive than typical day schools.  It is not free, and I would also caution parents from imagining that they're going to be able to provide a "costless" education to children.  If we lack skills, we have to hire others to teach them things like music, art, dance, and so forth.  Next, we have to buy books - and we purchase a lot of them.  We also have to spend money on school supplies just like normal school attendees.  But, as you can imagine, home schooling costs considerably less than typical approaches - but it requires that at least one parent be home most of the time, and hence the family has to survive on a single salary.  We know a few families where a parent can work a part time job and still invest in home schooling, but it requires a lot of focus, patience, and attention.

  We recognize that homeschooling is not for everyone, but it has worked for us, and we'd encourage parents dedicated to their childrens' success, frustrated by their own experiences in school, or worried about their children being pushed by peers and teachers in an uncomfortable direction to do two things.  First, I run a national home schooling support group called jewishorthodoxandhomeschooling through the Yahoo groups system, and we have roughly 200 families on who can answer your questions.  Second, on May 6 2012 we'll be having a Torah Home Education conference in Baltimore MD which can provide additional insights to potential homeschooling families.

UPDATE: We have opened registration for the Fourth Torah Home Education Conference!

You will spend the day learning from veteran home educators, meeting other Jews interested in living a family-based learning lifestyle, and 

be able to peruse and purchase homeschooling materials from local and national educational vendors.

We are proud to bring you:

Evelyn Krieger, the author of the popular new novel, One is Not a Lonely Number, and veteran homeschooling mother.

Mrs Deborah Beck talking about Integrating Kodesh and Chol: Secular Subjects and Torah - Two Sides of the Same Coin.

Mrs. Robin Alberg presenting Remaining Focused In an Age of Digital Distractions. 

Mrs. Susan Lapin teaching us the idea of VeShinantam Levanecha: Defining Torah Home Education.

A Veteran Homeschoolers Panel: Addressing Key Questions Including "How Can I Teach What I Never Learned?"

Mr Max Masinter leading a group discussion on Whether the Homeschooling Community Should Promote Homeschooling 

as a Lifestyle Choice to Address Communal Issues. 

and several speakers/topics TBA.

Shabbos hospitality is available with the possibility of a melava d'malka afterwards. 

The conference will be Sunday May 6, 2012 at the Park Heights JCC in Baltimore, MD. Registration will begin at 8:15am and the conference will begin at 9 am. 

To find out more and register for the conference, please visit http://torahhomeeducation.eventbee.com

We look forward to meeting you at the conference!