We who know the value of yeshivas and day schools have less of an excuse than the secularists. Basic Torah education is being downplayed as a communal obligation. There are comfortable Orthodox Jews – more than a few – who go to shul regularly and live strong Torah lives but who in the course of a year contribute next to nothing to yeshivas and day schools.
In the typical yeshiva or day school, parents are required with each passing year to shoulder a greater share of the budget. In religious families, yeshiva education is not an option, no matter how high the tuition. (Actually, there are hundreds, perhaps more, of Orthodox children who are being home-schooled, primarily as a result of high tuition charges.) In some families, grandparents help with tuition, an arrangement that cannot be maintained endlessly.
Whether or not there is outside assistance, there is widespread difficulty and pain as parents struggle to meet tuition and other obligations arising out of their religious commitment, a struggle made more difficult because of the growing size of Orthodox families.
Parents who work hard and honorably and whose income is limited are being told that high tuition is their problem, and it’s not for the yeshiva to figure out how they meet this obligation.
All of this enacts a huge toll in terms of emotional stability and shalom bayis.
Meanwhile, throughout the U.S., there has been a steady contraction of scholarship opportunities for needy day school families, the only exception being when a family is hit by a catastrophe.
(I do not fault schools for insisting that tuition be paid irrespective of family circumstances. In a sense, our schools are the primary victims of a consumerist mentality.)
What isn’t seen is the cost exacted among marginally observant families for whom a day school education is preferable but not mandatory. It stands to reason that rapidly rising tuition charges will tip the scales against some and perhaps many such parents sending their children to a day school. Enrollment data provides backing for this conclusion.
I recently completed a second census of U.S. day schools, following up on a study that I conducted in 1999. Enrollment figures were secured for all yeshivas and day schools. Overall, there was considerable growth, notably in the chassidic and yeshivish sectors that benefit from a significantly high fertility rate. In non-Orthodox schools, enrollment is essentially flat and there can be no doubt that tuition charges are a major factor.
A significant number of Orthodox schools around the country have suffered enrollment declines. This might be expected in view of population shifts and, in some places, the establishment of competing schools. What is telling is the decline in schools with an outreach orientation, including those that serve immigrant populations. I sense that there is diminished enthusiasm for supporting these schools.
Away from New York, the picture is disheartening in key communities where flagship Centrist Orthodox schools that have long been the backbone of the day school movement have in just five years experienced astonishing enrollment declines. While several factors have contributed to this development – notably the tendency of young observant families to move away – it’s also evident that these schools are losing prospective students because scholarship assistance is not available.
Professional and lay leaders of these schools tell me that they feel left out, that they do not get the encouragement and attention that they used to get from the day school movement.
The students who are being lost to day schools have, with few exceptions, no names. Who they are is mostly unknown. We do not calculate that they are being lost to the Jewish people. We feel no pain or shame because day schools are no longer in most communities the magnet for attracting families to Judaism.
