GIVE ME TZEDAKAH FOR MY NEEDS

[Thank you "Anonymous" for today's post. To all readers - please comment on any topic, your comment might be tomorrow's post - KollelVeib]

This problem is just going to get worse. Until people change their attitude about tuition and treat tuition as coming ahead of vacations, summer camps, $15,000 a year seminary and many other expenses etc., we will always be struggling to finance new schools. There is a certain attitude that a tution break is a right of everyone that is middle or lower income, and somehow the school administration is the responsible party. While I dont argue the fact that needy people should get tution breaks, it is the attitude that is wrong.

If a parent would look at it as if he is definitely required to pay his full share and asking for a tuition reduction is the equivalent of asking the school to go out and collect Tzedokoh for your needs, then I think people would think twice about their lifestyles and rearrange their priorities. I do not minimize the need for a well deserved summer vacation or much needed camps or seminary, but the order of priorities should be Tuition, rent, food, and utilities before anything else.

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START YOUR OWN SCHOOL

[Thank you "Anonymous" for today's post. To all readers - please comment on any topic, your comment might be tomorrow's post - KollelVeib]

No new High Schools are on the horizon. Some of the existing schools have stuffed their classes to an untolerable levels ,( 35 to 36 per class ) against their better judgement to try to help but it is still not enough .

Why are those schools being blamed for parental inaction in opening up more schools?

It is easy to shoot off your mouth and make someone else the bad guy, but in reality you should be getting off your easy chair and grouping with fellow parents to open new schools for your kids. And when you do that and see how many hundreds of thousands of dollars you lose and have to raise every year ,and how your life is consumed by donating your time to the school, maybe you will finally appreciate the schools that you are now criticizing. You can't expect 15 elementary school classes from 6 schools to fit into 11 High school classes from 4 schools. Mathematically it just doesnt add up . By the way, High school tuition in Lakewood is so low that it is very expensive to run a school, and even with big class sizes always runs a big deficit. High school salaries for quality teachers are almost double elementary school salaries while the tutions in Lakewood High schools are only about 20 % more on average because the average parent is maxed out and cant afford it. So that is the little secret why people aren't running over each other to start new high schools, as opposed to elementary where the payroll is much lower per class, or boys yeshivas where you might be able to get big gvirim to sponsor Torah learning.