Joe emails: Orthodox day schools cost a lot because they essentially have to pay two staffs.
The secular staff that teaches the same hours as public school, in a somewhat less dangerous environment (jews wield a sixth sense, not a six shooter), but with probably more academic pressure from the parents to educate their kids.
The rabbinic staff teaches the holy stuff, and in a way they are “well paid” – a teaching job at a good day school is pretty plum – the amount of test giving and standards employed to teach the kids really depend on the teacher. Rabbi Aron Tendler was known around YULA as pretty much of a joke when it came to his standards (we now know why). Given that most of these Rabbis have 4 or more kids, the day school job gives them a good income and the time to allow them to hustle some other scratch by being a kashrut rabbi, pulpit rabbi, etc. There is no question but that there is a healthy subsidy given by orthodox parents to the rabbinate as jews are alot smarter than catholics to live like ascetics. The comparison between a jesuit taking a vow of poverty to a rabbi teaching at a school living in a respectable house in the valley or in south robertson or on detroit is ridiculous. Jews are not catholics. Do not hate the player, hate the game.
What I do not get is why a Temple Sinai or other Reform Schools are so expensive. The religious staff knows less talmud than you and could not tell the difference between the opinions of Summakhos and the Rabbis as to the burden of proof relating to ownership of property. The expense of those places is absolutely baffling as the parents are paying for a religious education worth about as much as an Obama campaign pledge.
In defense of the system, there are apparently lots of scholarship cases, but the main issue is something that no one wants to discuss.
Why do the Wiesenthal Center and other charities commemorating the ashes of dead jews have more money than the saudis, while jewish days schools suffer for the money and gouge parents, thus providing a guarantee that jewish kids who cannot afford to attend end up, as far as being jewish, almost as Der Fuhrer intended. Of course, there is one small difference – he wanted them dead no matter the level of observance and you could not avoid the camps by simply opting out of day school. But the fact is that the jewish soul is lost in either event.
