Jewish Day School Affordability Is Not a Werewolf—It’s a Cholent
Werewolves, to me, are the silliest villains in the horror movie canon. They’re only dangerous one night a month, at which point (starting at midnight, no less) they go through a loud, hairy transition that’s hard to miss, unless it’s in the middle of the forest. And if your village does have a werewolf problem, all you need is some silver, because one shot is all it takes to put that beast down. Chick-chock, lickety-split. All things being equal, not the most difficult problem to solve.
Jewish day school affordability is the most prominent and complicated component of what is really a larger challenge—the high expense of living an engaged Jewish life in the 21st century. Just last week, two great thinkers wrote important articles about the topic (Harry Bloom in eJewish Philanthropy, Marvin Schick in Baltimore Jewish Life)—and others have made important contributions in the past couple of months (Rabbi Aryeh Klapper and Jon Mitzmacher among them). And, other than Dr. Bloom, each of these scholars suggests the existence of a “silver bullet”: the one magic strategy that will somehow make Jewish day school affordable for every family.
Is affordability really that straightforward? Is it the werewolf of the Jewish community?
I don’t think so. There is no silver bullet. There’s not even a silver bomb. In fact, let’s ditch that metaphor completely and take on another, tastier (and Jewier) one instead: Jewish day school affordability is a cholent. It requires multiple ingredients, and everyone’s recipe is different. (I, for example, use sweet potatoes and beer.) And every community must create its own mix, unique to its attributes and challenges. These may include government funding, substantial federation support, cost sharing, blended-learning projects, or endowment campaigns. But no individual strategy can meet the challenge.
Pittsburgh’s three Jewish day schools benefit substantially from Pennsylvania’s Earned Income Tax Credit Program and an increased federation campaign allocation. MetroWest, New Jersey has an incredibly successful endowment campaign for its three schools. Chicago has not one, but two communal fundraising efforts. But as innovative and effective as these initiatives are, none of them has “solved” the affordability issue.
So what will it take to succeed?
It will take persistence and data, and the ability to confront the challenge using multiple tactics and strategies. It will take the support of champions; a commitment to systemic change; and a detailed plan, with ambitious, measurable goals. It will take a deep understanding of your school’s and community’s strengths, weaknesses, and resources. It will take a lot of time at Starbucks.
Last, it will take the combined experience and expertise of community partners who share a common vision. That’s why PEJE and the OU have collaborated to create the Jewish Day School Affordability Knowledge Center—a central “clearing house” to share noteworthy practices across the entire Jewish day school field.
Over the next year I will be analyzing affordability strategies from communities across North America. I cannot tell you how excited I am to learn and share with all of you so we can all benefit. Together, we can make fantastic cholents, and find effective, innovative ways to make Jewish day school more affordable.
But you’re peeling the onions. I hate that part.
Charles Cohen is the manager of the Jewish Day School Affordability Knowledge Center. An attorney in pretentious suffix only, Charles’s prior Jewish communal service includes working at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, where he supported schools and other Jewish organizations in strategic planning and fostering effective collaboration.
I disagree about the Starbucks comment. Caffeine would only make a tense situation worse. I would think that Percocet would provide the necessary relief. I agree with the Cholent concept but we should stop talking about affordability and instead have a true discussion about how our regular community members, outside the day schools, will start viewing a day school education as the first choice to educate their children. As lay leaders, this is the only standard we should strive for and anything else shouid be considered a failure. Until we achieve this lofty goal our communities will continue to have a tuition affordability crisis instead realizing their children are getting a Jewish education that is truly priceless.
Mmmmm…cholent.
Great post! As a young couple looking to eventually sprout some kinderlach we are depending on you to help solve this crisis.
Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.
For a state and place like NY which (I think) has the most Jews in the US, the most obvious (and yes) silver bullet is a voucher program (a certificate issued by the government which parents can apply toward tuition at a private school rather than at the state school to which their child is assigned) since a resident pays tax for public schools and doesn’t get the benefit of them.
But I think concurrent with an effort to address the schooling cost should be an effort to address the qulaity of education. The Jewish educational system should have certification for its employees and accountability to educational (curriculum) standards.
Great to hear PEJE and the OU are teaming up in this effort! Good luck, Charles.
Macy, you mentioned that “we should stop talking about affordability,” but this is another layer of the cholent metaphor. Just as there is a mix of ways to fund a day school depending on the community, there is a mix of reasons why community members attend (or don’t attend). Affordability may be an issue. In some places, inclusiveness may be an issue. And in other places, it may just be a matter of convincing parents of the value proposition of driving kids across town every day when there is a perfectly good public school and synogogue religious school down the street.
I like the cholent comparision, but maybe it should be instant cholent since we all need to have a sense of urgency in addressing the challenges.
The crisis faced by so many schools demands multiple approaches (more cholent?) to exploring the problem. Charles’ task of gathering and analyzing data will surely benefit schools but will take time. At the same time, we can also benefit from speaking directly with one another through a blog (or some other online networking format) dedicated specifically to this problem. Maybe PEJE could help organize this or create a CoP designated to discussing affordability.
Talk about rising to a communal challenge! It is wonderful to see this collaboration and know that communities will have support on this most pressing challenge we are all facing.
While we won’t hold OU, PEJE, or Charles responsible for coming up with the silver bullet, we sure do look foward to some excellent national thinking and support…oh, and some of the beer flavored cholent next time I’m in Boston!
It’s wonderful to have Charles join us here at PEJE and to spearhead this critical work. Vis-a-vis the cholent-style “mix” of approaches to affordability, there is a factor that I would emphasize, which is the role of specific individuals in creating that mix of approaches that has begun to address this issue in different communities. Whether it is a dedicated donor, a sympathetic and powerful Federation head, or a charismatic community leader, it takes enthusiastic people–not just good ideas–to get these off the ground. So as Charles begins the work of collecting this important data, we as a day school community need to also continue the work of community-based advocacy to strengthen our support network and plant the seeds for more of these initiatives to sprout across North America.
I think Ross’ point is at the heart of what Jeff and Macy wrote. Champions of day school education must be woven into the fabric of community leadership. Affordability is a fundamental part of a larger culture change that will make Jewish day schools a higher priority. If champions are successful, though, affordability must be a selling point, not an obstacle (as it is in most communities).
Chaya,
you bring up a crucial need, and one that hopefully will be addressed through the Affordability Knowledge Center. My future blog posts should provoke some worthwhile discussions, but a Community of Practice may end up being a part of the Center as well. Hopefully the Center will evolve as people become more engaged with the issue.
I look forward to this continuing discussion and trying to find some creative solutions to this continuing crisis. It is imperative that we make Jewish education affordable, available and attractive to all.
First of all, yasher koach to PEJE for having the foresight and vision to think strategically about this issue and to put you, our own Charles Cohen, at the forefront of what is one of the essential questions of Jewish peoplehood. Your mission? To communicate the radical and obvious proposition that Jews do best when we do what we do best, transmit through daily, comprehensive, and integrated Jewish experiences the feelings, habits, skills, and devotion needed for an engaged Jewish life.
We know that day school education works. The Jewish world needs to put money into what works.
The cost of being Jewish should not cost us any more Jews.
Of course, I love the cholent analogy. Jewish day school education is indeed substantive and nourishing; it can stick in your gut for a very long time, inspires a warm feeling in your kishkes (especially when the recipe includes kishke).
Like your cholent, Jewish day school education offers one of Jewish life’s enduring and memorable experiences that, when done right, demands to be relived from generation to generation (m’dor l’dor).
Let them eat cholent!
Werewolf cholent…. Who’s shchitah? Seriously, the data collection is critical and I would hate to see anything rushed out of a sense of urgency that would then be shown to be overreactive once the data is in. My wife’s grandmother (z”l) used to say “do it wrong, takes twice as long.” I think that is quite applicable here even if it feels like it is taking a long time to do it right. Besides, ever taste poorly-done cholent? Feh!.
I couldn’t agree more: there is no silver bullet. It’s about increasing revenue on multiple fronts–annual, endowment and, when needed, capital investments, as well as through revenue-producing strategies such as utilizing facilities off-hours, and taking full advantage of whatever grants programs, goverment or private, exist within your communities. Schools need to do this with long-term,, strategic plans while maintaining and investing in the highest levels of academic excellence and professionalism to continue to attract and retain families from across the socio-economic perspective.
No easy task, and, for sure, no overnight solutions!
Congratulations to PEJE for taking this on and bringing conversations, ideas, data and learnings from around the country together in one office! We all have much, much more to learn from one another.