{"id":32516,"date":"2011-05-09T16:36:54","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T00:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=32516"},"modified":"2011-05-09T16:36:54","modified_gmt":"2011-05-10T00:36:54","slug":"rethinking-jewish-day-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=32516","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking Jewish Day Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

From DonnaBurstyn.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I was calculating what I spent on the education of my four daughters before they hit college. Three of them went to Orthodox Jewish day schools. A fourth one went until third grade and then was in other schools that catered to her special needs better.<\/p>\n

I spent around $400,000 for their education.<\/p>\n

Many people in my Orthodox Jewish community shrug their shoulders and say, we all have to spend that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m having a different look at it now that I\u2019m 50 and have two married daughters, a granddaughter and another one on the way. I\u2019m looking at the cost of a college education.<\/p>\n

My desire to have my kids at Orthodox Jewish day schools cost me more than their college did. It was such a tremendous strain and drain financially to keep up with what was expected of me as an Orthodox mother that in retrospect, I would\u2019ve done it differently.<\/p>\n

I am so bothered by what it costs for Jewish day school. I remember having a patient come to me who was a non-practicing Catholic. She had her child at a Catholic day school because they had a finer education than the public school in her district. She told me that she had to pay $212 a month. That included lunch. Everyone paid that. Why so little? Because the Archdiocese of Los Angeles subsidized the rest of the tuition.<\/p>\n

I remember thinking how fortunate she was and how appalled I was that there wasn\u2019t a central system that would subsidize Jewish day schools. I\u2019m not talking about scholarships at individual schools. For seven years, I did get a discount on my bill as a single mother, but I still ended up paying out $400,000. It probably would\u2019ve been $500,000 if I had not gotten those scholarships.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a message that we\u2019re sending our children and an expectation that they are assuming \u2013 that they should give to their children what I gave to them. I don\u2019t agree with this message any more.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m trying to think of other ways than a Jewish day school to implement the ethics of our fathers, the transmission of our values, the teaching of Torah.<\/p>\n

With my fourth daughter about to go to college, I don\u2019t have the funds to support her going away from home. Her dream was to get good grades and to go to the best four-year college she could get into and live in a dorm and have a college life experience.<\/p>\n

Some people reading this column will say that is not what an Orthodox girl should do. She should go to a seminary her first year out of high school.<\/p>\n

Some of my daughters chose to do that. Another went to Bar Ilan University. But even that was thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

Are we telling our children that you have to be rich or you will be a beggar?<\/p>\n

The scholarship process was so humiliating at the Jewish day schools, except for a couple of years when a gentle soul was there. He understood. He was not wealthy. Other than that, the scholarship process usually consisted of a committee of five and some would be assigned to my case. I would be asked to bring in my check stubs and they would go through everything I wrote. And then they would decide if I was eligible for a scholarship or if I was negligent with my money. If I overspent elsewhere, then I wouldn\u2019t qualify.<\/p>\n

This is a big issue I\u2019ve yet to fully grapple with, but I don\u2019t want to see for my grandchildren this same problem. I\u2019m not in a position to support them or to make a dent in their day school tuition. The finances are much too difficult for me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m self-employed. I don\u2019t have a matching 401K plan. I have to protect my future.<\/p>\n

I suppose I could say \u2013 let my kids struggle as I struggled. Let them have less now. They\u2019ll have more later as a result of a Jewish education.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure that is the case. My daughter who did not go to a Jewish school past third grade is as magnificent as the other three, even though she does not read Hebrew.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From DonnaBurstyn.com: I was calculating what I spent on the education of my four daughters before they hit college. Three of them went to Orthodox Jewish day schools. A fourth one went until third grade and then was in other … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[255,14,18],"tags":[26330,26329,6993,10188,4335,26331],"class_list":["post-32516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donna-burstyn","category-education","category-orthodoxy","tag-archdiocese-of-los-angeles","tag-catholic-day","tag-jewish-day-school","tag-jewish-day-schools","tag-orthodox-jewish-community","tag-practicing-catholic"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t