By Rabbi Moshe Lieblich, Principal, Hamesivta, Lubavitcher Yeshiva
I want to share with you my personal experience.
It was time for me to enroll my child to school, I heard all the horror stories about meeting the board of tuition so I decided to come prepared.
They had asked me for $5,200, so I sat down with my wife, and we went over our budget and saw that the most we can offer was $4,000, at that time I just purchased a condo and we were in a tight spot.
So I brought him my story, I was well prepared… or was I? I came into the room, there were about 4-5 people there, the room was silent, there was fear and dread in the room, no one was talking, we were all waiting to get this over with…
The woman before me came out of the room sobbing, and that’s when I really got scared.
But I thought I was prepared, so I came into the room, sat down and showed him my papers, and said that I discussed it with my wife and the most we can afford is $4,000.
He looked at me and started yelling at me that I have a nerve to come into his office and make him an offer, he said that the real price is close to $9,000 and he was already giving me a discount, and how do I have the chutzpah to ask him for a bigger discount?
He said that every penny he gives off is money that he has to raise, and I have a chutzpa to ask him to raise more money for my kid…
I tried talking to him and explaining to him my situation… he didn’t even let me talk… after 15 minutes we didn’t end up coming to a conclusion so I left.
I remember walking out of there trying to look strong but inside I was crying, I remember walking away broken, dejected, humiliated, and I remember thinking, if this is what it’s like when I have 3 kids, how will I manage when I have more?
A few years ago I had an amazing Rebbe working in my school, he had a family of 5 kids and he was making a salary of $42,000 a year, and he was 3 months behind in pay. Sad to say, he had to quit teaching, he isn’t a Rebbe anymore.
I’m in chinuch for 12 years now and I have dealt with over 200 families, I see first-hand what it means to make payroll at the end of the month, I face my teachers every day and I see the stress they have every week wondering, “will I get paid this week?”
I see first-hand the effect it has on families and my students, I had mothers crying to me on the phone that they don’t have money for food, I had a father tell me that he doesn’t have the money for the a gemara for his son, I have seen the devastating effect it has on our kids.
Now I didn’t choose to take on this project but someone had to do it.
The plan I’m going to present to you, I will present it in 3 parts, I will first tell you the plan, I will tell you how I will do it, and then I will tell you why I called you here tonight.
What is the plan?
I would like to introduce you to an organization that I am starting called the “Jewish Education Scholarship Fund.”
My plan is to create an endowment fund of $100,000,000 over the next 10 years.
What that means is that over the next 10 years we would raise $100,000,000 and we would invest any money that we raise and we would only use the interest.
The money that we raise will stay in the account for generations to come, we would only use the interest and dividends that we get from it, we would have at least 2 firms representing us and investing for us, and we would invest it conservatively to make sure we don’t lose it.
Based on history we are expecting a return average of 4% a year; that would mean $4,000,000 a year,
Our fund would also help families make full use of the government voucher program, basically what that is, is that there is a government program for low income families if both parents are working, it’s an after school program that the government gives money per child.
It’s a complicated process to go through with a lot of paper work, so we will have a team of experts focused just on that.
If we can get 300-400 kids a year on that program that would bring in another $2,000,000-$3,000,000 to the schools, together with government grants we would help schools get, and fundraising, we would hopefully help bring in to the schools around $7,000,000 a year.
Now, there would be a few conditions for the schools to get the money:
1: we would have a tuition cap of $7,000 a year. The reason for that is that it already happened before with such scholarship funds for schools and camps that as soon as there is a fund they raise tuition and the only ones to gain are the people at the top, My goal is to help struggling families.
2: another condition for the school to get the money would be that they need to pay teachers a starting salary of $70,000 a year. Our teachers work hard and deserve to get paid a decent salary.
There is no reason we shouldn’t be able to attract quality teachers and the ones we have shouldn’t have to work second and third jobs to pay for food..
With this plan, the schools would have enough money to pay for it, make the cheshbon: if there are 25 students in the class and they get $7,000 per kid then they are getting $175,000, if they pay the teacher $70,000 they would have another $105,000 for other expenses.
I want to be very clear that I am not taking over the fundraising of the schools at all, what I am doing is helping struggling families and raising the salaries of teachers, the school will continue to do whatever fundraising they are doing, whether it’s a Chinese auction, a dinner or anything else, my goal is to help struggling families and raise the teacher’s salary.
I cannot say this enough: we want it to be an independent organization. All parents who care about their children’s future, and anyone who cares about the future of our youth, will be able to feel secure in donating to an independent, transparent organization. This is where all of us should be giving our monthly maaser money to.
We are not looking to manage the schools at all, there will be however some basic standards that the school will need to keep to be considered a school, like basic student safety, a standard curriculum etc.
The way it would work would be as follows, the parents would approach the school for registration, if they can’t afford to pay the full $7,000 they would come to our fund, we would have an independent company who would treat them humanely and with respect go over their finances and make a decision.
The fund would then give the school whatever the parent can’t pay, if a family is eligible for vouchers then we would help them navigate the system and sign them up for the voucher program.
The voucher program is a program available to many people in our community, when I went to pay for tuition they didn’t even mention it.
if we can get 300-400 kids on vouchers that’s another $2-3 million dollars for our schools.
The plan is a 10 year plan to raise the full $100,000,000 but we will not need to wait the full 10 years till we can start using it, as soon as we have $1,000,000 we will start distributing and build on that, the more that comes in the more we will distribute, and work from there, people will start seeing relief way before the fund is fully funded.
Grants is another thing we would put a lot of work into, each school is hiring people to do research for grants and paying grant writers, if we work together as a community we can have an office and hire the best grant writers in the country, instead of writing for 1 school they can write for all the schools together.
How will we get the money?
The plan is really simple, I will go to 100 wealthy people and ask them to donate $1,000,000 or $100,000 over the next 10 years, I will explain to them how the money will last forever and how they are saving an entire community, and that every million dollars will sponsor a full class forever.
I know it sounds like a dream and many people are telling me it’s unrealistic, but I am determined to make it happen, if I can’t get 100 people I will get 200 people to give $500,000 over the next 10 years.
I will try private people and foundations, if someone can give $10,000 or $20,000 a year, that would be $100,000 or $200,000 over 10 years.
I also spoke to all the rabbonim and many of them said that they would come with me anywhere in the world to help me make this happen. I am determined and with Hashem’s help and the Rebbe’s brochos we will make it happen.
Why did I call you to a meeting?
I started reaching out to donors and got some very positive feedback, one very wealthy donor, to quote, said, “Thank you for considering us for a partnership role in this amazing project, your vision is noble, the cause is just, and in my opinion, long overdue.”
And there are many others, however what I’m seeing over and over again is that they want to see it come from the community, not just from 1 guy with a dream.
They said it’s a huge project and they will be happy to be part of it if they see it coming from the community as a whole, the parents, the teachers, the schools and the donors, B”H I have all the Rabbonim of the community supporting this project, Rabbi Avrohom Osdoba, Rabbi Yakov Schwei and Rabbi Yosef Braun, and many more.
But what I need now is the community support, so first of all the fact that you all came out here today and there is another 2000 people watching it online is a very strong message to donors that the community is suffering from this crisis and that the community is behind me and is hoping that this will succeed.
Second, showing up here is not enough, if you can make a donation to the fund, if 1000 people give $10 a month over the next 10 years we will raise $1,200,000 if 10000 people give 36 a month over the next 10 years we will raise $4.320,000 if you can give more is even better, those that can give $1,000 a month that would be amazing, but most important is to give something.
I need to be able to come to donors and show them that we have a community that is hurting and they are backing my project, we need to show the schools that we as a community are hurting and the people of the community want them to work together and united to solve this crisis, if I can show that I have a strong support from the community then we can make this happen.
Another issue I would address is to work with our elected officials and try to pass legislation to help our community, we would strongly encourage everyone to go out and vote, we are a growing community and imagine the power we will have if 15000-20000 people show up to vote, we will have a real voice on the city and state level and we will be able to accomplish a lot.
Earlier today I spoke with our state senator Jesse Hamilton and he committed to meet with me to put together legislation to help our community, I told him it wasn’t fair that we are being taxed twice, we are paying property tax that funds public schools and then we need to pay tuition to our schools.
He said he is happy to work with me to put forward any proposal we would want, we have to understand that we voted them in and they work for us… but we have to show up to vote…
In summary, I will continue to work on a few fronts, and I need your help.
• Creating and growing the endowment fund
• I would help people with the voucher program
• I will work with the schools to maximize our funds from government and private foundations
• I will work with our city and state officials to pass legislation to help us out.
The ultimate goal is to raise a generation of children that are happy, healthy and serving the oibershter, that’s what we all want, we want a healthy community with healthy marriages and healthy children and I ask you to join me in my efforts to come together as a community and solve this together.
Please go online to www.jewisheducationscholarshipfund.org and make your donation, show your support, and follow up on our progress.
Thank you so much for coming out here tonight, it’s the first step in uniting the entire community for a common cause, may Hashem see the achdus and bench us with the coming of moshiach speedily in our days.
Full Event Video
Most lubavitch elementary schools take in average of $4-8k per child in tuition dollars. The rest is grants or fundraising. This idea is viable if the fund is fully funded and can guarantee schools that if they reduce the tuition to $7k the fund will supplement the shortfall for parents that can’t give the full $7k. The problem I see is that high schools and post highschools squeeze much more from parents and run relatively smaller and higher cost organizationsavings leaving less tuition dollars for the local elementary schools. I hope Rabbi Meisles is successful and can take on the… Read more »
I went to school in the 70’s and early 80’s . my parents were NY city teachers that got laid off during the NYC1975 financial crisis. we had just starting to become frum and as the Rebbe encouraged Jewish education, my parents sent my sister and I to a frum school. although they probably received some kind of discount, my parents had tremendous mesirus nefesh to pay every dollar of that tuition. (even though at that point we weren’t really frum yet, just starting out at Yiddishkeit) my parents did not own a home, we rented a small apartment, we… Read more »
I raised all my children in the CH school system. Most of the time we were treated well, but that was because we paid A LOT of tuition. When we nearly lost our home after 2008 and we were conned by a frum yid with some bad financial advice, things were different. The humiliation was horrendous. I think this plan has potential. I was skeptical at first – but I have a question. If I were to pay a little each month (we are retired now & moved away & don’t have any assets) could that money be directed in… Read more »
I love this idea. 🙂 Hopefully grandparents will still continue to help their children if they can afford it, so the need for grants will be slightly reduced. $10 isn’t so much money, and many of us can B”H easily afford $10/month. BUT who is going to audit the finances? Who will make sure the teachers are the first ones to get paid? Who will make sure the money doesn’t increase the administration’s salaries instead of paying the teachers and for the kid’s educational needs? Please answer these questions. I’m going to donate now but hope to checkin after shabbos… Read more »
BSD
There are many talented teachers, Rebbeim, music teachers who work out of Crown Heights because they are not appreciated for the talent they have in Crown Heights and not hired. Or cant be paid properly or the housing costs have driven them out of Crown Heights.
Raising salaries will keep talented teachers in Crown Heights and raise the education (from babysitting) like some call it to REAL productive education.
Thank you. You came up with a sensible, forward thinking, challenging, but probably attainable plan, and deserve a tremendous amount of credit for thinking it through, and more importantly, ready to step up and make it happen. That is very commendable!! All my respect to you, and may you be benched in all that you need, in your personal life, and in your work for the Klal. While every plan may need tweaking, and while some people’s suggestions may be worthwhile to hear, please do not get discouraged by those who are quick to suggest, advise, and criticize, but aren’t… Read more »
Class size needs to be smaller and teachers have to be hired by contract very year bad teacher get removed very year no teacher should be able to teach passed the age of 50 pre one a and first grade davka 50 and above
Visual learning is good for kids that need it but you still need the old way of teaching too. Because you are limiting the kid to learn this way and later on when he has to learn by himself he’s kind of lost. You need to train the brain to be able to think and imagine things by himself. Visual helps but shouldn’t be the main or only way of teaching.
Does this mean per child or per family?
If per child then we’re talking about $14,000, $21,000,… Per family.
This plan is a long shot but I hope it works out. If this works out the $7,000 makes sense for a Chabad lemudei koiesh school but not for most yeshivas that have secular curriculum as well. Their tuition is significantly higher (15-20k for high school ) an efficient and cheap solution is to replace the babysitting service called teachers (not rebbeim just secular) and use a computer program in the schools they cost bubkes. The material will be learned in a much more efficient manner (instead of a raucous misbehaved classroom wasting their time) driving down cost and shortening… Read more »
this is amazing, we should all learn from this sweet yungerman, yogata umotzosa, if we don’t stand i the way, this will happen in less then 10 years, as long as its done besholom, this will be 1 thing that the entire anash in ch can take part in, together in 1 fund, that itself is amazing, u just brought so much nachas to the rebbe!!! ashrecho!!
i salute the efforts in this project. but
a. good luck in getting these privately owned schools’ owners to reduce their tuition to 7k.
b. why more focus on the price and not the product? the education itself is the elephant in the room. Yay. It’s now affordable. What’s affordable? baby-sitting?
Let’s not forget that the 4% kicks in only once they have a full year of the collected 100m, this may take a few years assuming they can also propose a fundraising plan within the next few days, but it’s a start.
you all have good ideas but did you show support to the one man that is DOING SOMETHING, he asked us to come together and give $10 a month to show support so he can go out and make this happen… take out your credit card, make a donation then email him your ideas.
Kind of like an insurance for school. Please make sure you have the right professionals on board and that there is a balance of chessed (for parents) and gevurah (for institutions.)
Please clarify what you mean when you say schools get lots of money for pre-school and therapists and are not using the money for pre-1a and older. Why is “something off” when a school uses money that the government gave for those purposes, and not other expenses? Is that chinich when we are using monies illegally?
Just a side note, it is beautiful to see when schools use the government after school program grants to actually provide amazing and good quality after school programs for our community.
The hardest part of this proposal is raising the millions for the trust fund. I don’t think we have to many donors to be able to give one million dollars a year. The issue of tuition problems started when the schools not having a good fund raising system started to put pressure on the large families that have no way to cover tuition. Take for example Lubavitcher yeshive they had the Rashag, Rabbi Weinberg, Rabbi Teleshvsky, Rabbi Tenenbaum and others going out around the world and bring funds to cover tuitions, salaries and expenses. This fund does not exempt the… Read more »
I was thinking something along the same lines as you wrote.
We should have a community tax for life that spreads out the cost of tuition throughout life. It would be a fair percentage just like regular taxes. However, I think that it should also be based on the number of children you have.
Just raising teachers’ salaries across the board will create an ineffective situation. We need an outside company that evaluates teachers’ performance using multiple techniques, such as parent evaluations, onsite evaluations, students’ grades and principal evaluations. Based on the evaluations will be their salary raises.
Just where is this “$100,000,000” coming from?
I think its amazing that they were able to organize such an event. One thing I wonder about is why are many yeshiva scholarships based on financial need and actual SCHOLARSHIP mostly ignored. I did well in yeshiva and my family usually had to pau full tuition. There were other people in my class who received large discounts and not only did they not learn but they disturbed the whole class. I understand that the Chabad yeshiva model is mainly to raise people in a frum environment more than learning. However i think learning should be given some consideration in… Read more »
…Is that our community doesn’t make education our highest priority. Plain and simple.
Most of our talent, resources, money, etc. are either focused Shlichus, or on the other side, modern interests.
Other Frum communities, such as Willi, Lakewood, etc. place their CENTRAL focus on their children’s education, and they can support them, without charging high tuition.
Our ONLY solution, Will be when we, as a community, decide to focus on education. The money will come, the talent will come, the resources will come, etc.
But that will not happen for a long long time.
Is anyone asking how this will effect usual fundraising efforts over the next ten years?
The people behind this are saying schools must still cover their usual deficits. Higher salaries will only increase those deficits.
And then over the next ten years the people behind this will be approaching the same donors as the schools.
How does this make sense?
most people don’t make lets say make 7k a month thats 84K with 5 kids in school you want them to pay 5 months of the year salary straight to tuition !
This is much needed.
Needs to be global.
And I also wonder how one family can pay 7k per child when kyh we have larger families.
I don’t want to come across sounding cocky, but when my husband and I were in a bad financial place and desperately wanted to send our kids to Jewish day school, we worked 4 jobs between us to pay for it and we worked it out so they never went to day care. We were denied tuition assistance so we had no choice but to figure it out for ourselves. It can be done. Just lots of hard work. With that said, we were able to afford to help other students with tuition. Ultimately, My husband was on a scholarship… Read more »
Tuition is a fortune! Most families simply cannot afford to pay for all the expenses related to sending their kids to school over the period of time that they attend the school.That is why in public school system the costs are spread equally across the entire population over an entire lifetime in the form of taxes. If we really wanna stop birth control tuition we need to start an extremely well funded and well managed foundation run by the business community, not schools or teachers- although they will definitely have representation. In short, anyone who associates themselves with the jewish… Read more »
We have a chinuch system that, in essence, counts on teachers qualifying for food stamps, section 8, etc., to supplement their pay. In what other profession is the pay rate DETERMINED based on that???? How absolutely awful! (This has become true throughout the frum world, not just here in Crown Heights.) This is a symptom of a much bigger problem. With all of the government money flowing in for preschools, therapists of various types, etc., there is money here for schools. But it’s not going toward regular Pre-1-A through Seminary teachers’ salaries. Something is really off in our system! I… Read more »
There are educational institutes in the US that are religion-based, that actually refuse government money, in the name of being free to run the way they want to. It is a radical suggestion, and would have to involve a lot of old-fashioned fundraising, from rich donors, from fundraising events, from pushkas, from student-run fund drives, etc. And there are some grant sources that are private, that might fit into this picture as well. There are also alumni who don’t live in Crown Heights anymore, some of whom are, Baruch Hashem, successful in business and can contribute as well. Bob Jones… Read more »
You stated: “Some of the best teachers have no training and some of the worst have great training.” Replace the word “teacher” with the word “doctor” and you will see how pathetic your statement is. Aside from the fact that your statement is ludicrous and without any kind of statistical facts to back it up, today’s teachers are not the village “melamed” from the shtetl. Kids today have a plethora of problems ranging from ADHD to insecurities to poor comprehension skills. Only a trained teacher can know how to properly deal with and respond to these children. A teacher who… Read more »
one hundred ppl to give a million , now thats easy! how about 200 ppl and u will get 200 mil … 200 mil in the bank untouched , sounds like a plan! good luck dreamer , love ur enthusiasim!
To number 39. Well said. I hope Rabbi Leibleich takes those points into consideration.
Also, the magic number of 70k needs to be revised. see comment 37.
Again this is a very,very important thing for all of us to get involved in and share with people that we can influence.
While the basic idea of this plan is the best I’ve heard so far, all of the points that “some comments” brought up are SIGNIFICANT.
These points must be addressed in order for the plan to have any chance of succeeding.
You’re all, on your own.
The hard-core Charedi communities, DO actually make tuition affordable for everyone, through communal authority and control, on all levels.
A huge Yasher Koach to Rabbi Lieblich for spearheading this. I personally believe he will pull it off. He seems very committed to this and that is what it takes first and foremost. BL”N I will donate to this fund. Questions? People have questions. He seems intelligent and well thought out. He will certainly involve and consult with intelligent people. Every question has an answer. What he presented were broad outlines. Of course, you can expect the project to be tweaked as moves along. For once, someone is taking a positive, optimistic and proactive approach. This can happen and will… Read more »
MUST BE AUDITED TO COMPLY WITH STATED GOALS WITHOUT SHMEIDREI. GREAT IDEA THOUGH. WILL BLI NEDER DONATE WHAT I CAN.
bh In regards to the 70,0o0 dollar salary/ Teachers can’t be great teachers, if they have large families and are paid the same as a person with 2 kids and a dog. In the end you will get this: either bad teachers, or even good teachers who have no incentive to be good teachers. As for training. We do not need to have davke training. Rather we need someone who knows how to do the job. If he is matzliach good if not then he should find another job. Some of the best teachers have no training and some of… Read more »
Fantastic, well thought-out plan. I don’t have kids yet and I’m donating anyways!!
You are doing an amazing thing, wishing you much Hatzlacha.
Bh Some comments on rabbi leiblachs tuition plan: I went through his plan, and I want to make a few comments. First of all I want to commend him for taking up this issue. Not only because he talked about it, and came up with a plan. Because I am sure many have also. Rather because he is actually doing something lemato me’asoro tefochim to bring this to a practical reality. This is a good plan with many good points (like saving money by centralizing and streamlining overhead) However like all plans, things can always be tweaked to the better,… Read more »
This is a beautiful idea! I will be glad to donate what I can IYH, and will donate in honor of others for Yahrtzeits, etc.
A starting $70,000 salary for all teachers?!?! Does this mean even for 1st year teachers (many of them without any kids)? Does this mean even for teachers without proper educational background/training? Does this mean for both male and female teachers? Here’s the problem: Nobody “deserves” $70,000 a year for teaching just because they “need” it. In the outside world there are standards by which a pay grade is decided. The fact that CH does not give the majority of it young adults a proper education does not mean they suddenly deserve a $70,000 salary just because the need (or want)… Read more »
it seems like a great plan & he is saying other fundraising efforts can & will continue however he is addressing the bigest concern about tuition & has a plan does anyone else have one? I don’t see anything this is a realistic effort & hopefully will succeed & yes the administrators will have to be realistic as well. if you want to say $70k a year is too much look at the sky rocketing rents in ch & how many people are willing to pay over a million $ for house that in reality is worth at least 30-… Read more »
Not clear what you are saying?
are you saying that the chabad community can’t pull off $100,000,000 over TEN YEARS,
I say that with people like you yes we will not be able to do it, but if you DO SOMETHING about it like Rabbi Lieblich is trying maybe we can get this done.
He only asked you for $10 a month, can you do that?
and he asked to bring the community together, can you do that???
Haters will hate
how will making a school pay a uneducated, only have smicha, freshly married teacher $70,000 a year get better quality teachers. I think it will just breed more unqualified teachers. Men that can’t find jobs will say hey i can get $70 grand teaching let me do that. no college education, no training, nothing and making 70 grand not bad in my opinion
here you have someone whose taking the initiative to help US, he’s presented a thorough and viable plan, that will take allot of work to materialize, which he will oversee. Are there going to be kinks to be worked out? fore sure, but if we all united its definitely possible.
Gave 100M a few years ago to Newark public schools – it can be done by one Gvir – surely an entire community working together can find it. Without a dream it surely won’t happen.
there was in southern Europe before the war and still in Satmar the idea of a community. If you have a community all this is possible. If it is everyone for themselves no plan with ever work.
Please show how big the pot is. $$$
It will be an incentive for more people to give.
Most professional salaries start at $55-$60K, and an unlicensed, untrained teacher should make $70,000? Parsonage too? Vos Noch?
Yes, teachers work hard, but so do accountants, bus drivers, nurses, managers, plumbers, electricians etc.
For this kind of salary, the teachers should be required to go through a year or two of mandatory training at their own expense. I’d be fine with teachers getting $70,000 if they have been vetted and have credentials, and only the cream of the crop were hired.
so 16 out of 18 comments dealt with how to spend the 100 mil. did anybody think about how to raise it? great idea and i dont know why he stoped at 100 mil why not 200 people and raise 200 mil?
of course its only for Crown Heights….we are entitled to everything for FREE. we host people for a few meals on Tishrei. AND we rent out our basemnets fro big bucks to shluchim by the kinus. we should get free tuition, free camp, and maybe even free phones. its not fair, why cant Rohr and Boglubov pay our tuition. we demand it. we deserve it. we need our money so we can go away for the summer, and for pesach, and we are also burdened with supporting all the restaurants that opened in past few years and that are set… Read more »
No where does the article discuss schools that are abusing funds?!? In Florida, low income families get 5k$ in step up and still the schools charge $$ There are families paying 10k+ a year per child and by no means well off! 7k cap is about right but would not save the bleeding middle class. 7k X 5 is still 35k! The only way this would work is that schools must undergo independent audit and finances tracked! No $$ disappearing, no nepotism or cronyism If a school won’t open it’s books they won’t get scholarships, if they don’t get scholarships… Read more »
Fantastic, well thought-out plan. I don’t have kids yet and I’m donating anyways!!
I like the idea of living /spending the interest only …. I would like to suggest to attract wealthy people and create jobs for our community ….. Jobs that moms can go half day too…. Jobs that have a quick & reasonable few month traning to go in – yea it exist ….. I don’t like the voucher idea at all – instead put pressure for the state administration and ask them to supplement all private schools with money and high school diploma education ! , when u say 400 kids will bring after school vouchers – for the school… Read more »
It would be in the organizations best interest to open social media accounts. If you want to rally a community in the 21st century the way to do it is through facebook, twitter, linkedin.
This way you can stay on top of the audience and constantly have be giving them updates etc.
Hatzlacha on this noble undertaking!
Thank you:)
This was already done in 2009, in Bergen County, NJ
http://www.nnjkids.org
Although a nice idea, and sure couldn’t hurt, tuition was not able to be reduced at all.
The only real/viable options are: governmental funding (at least for secular studies), or some form of tuition tax deduct-ability.
To the administrator who suggested tax free muni bonds:
It would be a charity foundation and so there would not be any taxes on it even if it was not tax free muni bonds.
I know many people, myself included that when I have extra Maaser I would NOT give it to the schools, I simply don’t trust them, this is something I would be happy to support.
I just donated $5 a week. I wish I could give more (not sure I could even give that, but this is something that needs to be done) Support this and share it with your facebook friends etc. Who knows who will end up joining because they know you!!!
Reminds me of something very similar Anytime someone approaches me with a bright business Idea i usually respond with the following: Why not acquire mass amount of land and build a Mega Shopping Mall with 300 shops and add a 26 screen theater and of course add room for a costco and walmart and a best buy (cant leave out a Bestbuy!) and then when your fully occupied you’ll sell for 230M give or take! seems like this plan is on a metaphor level similar to building a Mega Mall! have they been built before??? all the time! but when… Read more »
$7,000 x 150 kids = $1,050,000
7M will fund 1000 kids at 7K
(We still prob have more than 1k kids that can use help)
But I am from out of town. Is this fund only open to CH schools?
For the project to be credible, there is a need to ensure complete transparency.
* The management of the money must be delegated to outside professionals not related or connected to any of the school leadership.
* Investment allocations and performance reports should be publicized on a regular basis.
* Distribution data must be publicized (obviously without personal details of the recipients).
I agree that $70k salaries are a reasonable starting point but think they are not sustainable with $7000 tuition.
$70,000 with payroll taxes and medical insurance are going to cost over $100k. You will need about 14 kids just paying one teacher’s salary. And then there are other employees, building, buses and more overhead. Even with large classes of 25 kids this will not add up.
7% return is an aggressive assumption these days, but maybe still within reason.
There are approximately 5000 Talmidim & Talmidos in CH k-12. The average tuition brought in per child is around 4K. So this fund would provide the missing 3K. That means the fund would have to give out approximately 15,000,000 per year.
One minor adjustment that would help once the full funds are raised. Only use between 95%-98% of the interest/dividends each year and reinvestment that few percentage points to slowly grow the base foundation.. To #1 “Cool” The basics are that once fully funded, they would have about 4 Million a year to assist families. If the average assistance was $2,000 a student, that would allow them to supplement 2000 children’s tuitions per year. Would that be enough to solve the whole issue, probably not, but if we could get the program to that point, it would be a phenomenal achievement… Read more »
Raising this amount might be problematic. $70k?
Teachers deserve that but not possible for a girls school where most work half a day or at departmental. $ Tuition of $7k would never cover that. Encouraging vouchers is encouraging lying for most families. Nobody ever left my office in tears. That is unacceptable but bills and salaries must be paid on time. Investing is tricky. Tax free muni bonds are choice but need expert advise.
7,000,000.00 a year divided by 7000.00 is 1000
That is if all 1000 kids needs 100% deduction
Thousands of kids can be helped annually
Having served on tuition committees and school boards people should be made aware that even if all parents paid full tuition it would still not cover anywhere near the school’s budget, and that is true even in schools that charge 10 to 15 thousand a year. The only way that a school can exist is if thier is a viable and professional fundraising program in place. This can only be done with professionals fundraisers that although they take outrageous percentages they can each bring in hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars a year. This is the ONLY viable… Read more »
Good plan but i dont see how this will solve the tuition crisis worldwide. This is only for Crown Heights it seems. And i dont know if every community could pull this off. So how will this solve the tuition crisis all over? It is a nice idea and certainly needed. But i also think there is more to this: I think schools have to lower tuition prices drastically and make it possible for families with many kids to afford the prices. As the Rebbe said, schools should accept kids who cant afford free of charge. Hashem will send donors… Read more »
In addition, I don’t think the plan is to cover full tuition for all recipients of the grant. Some will only need supplementing, for example, when rabbi lieblich mentions he could only afford $4,000, the fund would have to give only 3,000 for him.
Yasher Koach for taking initiative
Your math is astounding. How about a calculator. This is the formula: 7,000,000 / 7,000=1,000 kids.
wow wow
about time
we start thinking out of the box —-
its seems like a dream but it can be a reality
thank you Rabbi Moshe Lieblich.
It would cover 1000 kids,and thats the full $7000. It csn cover for example 2000 half grants etc.
getting rid of the administration who take huge salaries and help themselves to cases of food?
The above suggestions are wonderful, if the money would actually go to paying the teachers and staff and not to lining the pockets of those that sit closest to the pot.
Just trying get to understand $7,000,000 a year 7,000 per kid is is good for about 150 kids is that all the kids who need help?