The
\nsingle greatest injustice facing American parents today is that they
\nare financially forced to send their children to schools not of their
\nchoosing. If you want to understand the level of unfairness you need
\nlook no further than my home state of New Jersey. Saturday’s Wall
\nStreet Journal reported that our state’s Supreme Court has “taken
\ncontrol of the $11 billion Property Tax Relief Fund,” funded by our
\nastronomical, highest-in-the-nation, property taxes. The Journal
\nreports, “The court sends more than half of the state aid to 31 largely
\nurban “special needs” school districts with the remaining 554 largely
\nsuburban towns fighting over the rest.”<\/p>\n
Want to know how badly
\nabused our tax dollars are in the State’s education system? A single
\ncommunity, Asbury Park, gets thirty thousand dollars per pupil – enough
\nto send them to the country’s best prep schools – and still “they
\nproduce dismal test results.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But I knew well before the article appeared what suckers we New
\nJersey tax payers are from my own community of Englewood where you have
\nto sell a kidney to afford the sky-high property taxes that fund an
\napproximately twenty-three thousand dollars per pupil public school
\nexpenditure that likewise produces poor test results.<\/p>\n
Included within our community are approximately six hundred
\nhard-working orthodox Jewish families that make up the lion’s share of
\nthe tax base. But not one of those families gets even a ten dollar
\nsubsidy from their taxes to help pay the tuition for their children’s
\nreligious school, which is curious when you consider how much money the
\ngovernment saves by having children in a values-based education system
\nwhich produces far lower delinquency rates.<\/p>\n
Now, since we read daily of the non-stop corruption and waste that
\nseems endemic to our state, why do we in New Jersey take it? Why aren’t
\nthere protests in the street? Honestly, I have no idea, other than to
\nsay it’s becoming prohibitive to even live here and many have indeed
\nbegun moving out.<\/p>\n
But be that as it may, I personally know scores of religious Jewish
\nfamilies for whom this injustice is beginning to break the bank. They
\nare slowly being bankrupted by the combination of high taxes and high
\ntuition. There is no way on earth they can pay both. And this of course
\napplies to Catholic parents, evangelical parents, and Islamic parents.
\nWhy does our country so strongly discriminate against responsible
\nparents who want their kids to pray every day and be more spiritual
\npeople? What does our country have against families who believe in
\nethical, religious traditions? How long will parents whose only sin it
\nis to want their children to know and love G-d be punished?<\/p>\n
And let’s not march out the over-roasted chestnut of separation of
\nChurch and State. This is not the State’s money. It’s the parent’s
\nmoney. It’s their tax dollars. Why is it taken from them without any
\nbenefit to their kids?<\/p>\n
And what if you’re a parent who isn’t even religious but simply
\ndisapproves of co-education? What if you’re of the opinion that
\nchildren, and especially girls, do much better in environments where
\nquestions of popularity among the opposite sex is minimized? Should you
\nbe forced to contravene your conscience for money?<\/p>\n
At this stage in my life, with two children in College and another
\nsix in private Jewish schools, the tuition burden has become almost
\nprohibitive. There is no way we can save anything since, by the time we
\npay Englewood property taxes and Jewish day school tuition, there
\nsimply is nothing left.<\/p>\n
And still the Jewish community refuses to seriously address the
\ntuition crisis with the only real solution which is to finally allow
\npublic funding for at the very least the secular departments of
\nparochial schools. Hebrew Charter schools are a necessary first step.
\nBut walking on egg shells to forestall any kind of accusation of
\nimparting a Jewish identity is simply not a complete solution. Less so
\nis sending your kid to a public school and supplementing it with a
\nJewish tutor. That still doesn’t provide for immersion into a Jewish
\nschool environment in which a child wears tzitzis and a Yarmulke,
\nwashes their hands for bread, and makes the proper blessings before
\neating various foods.<\/p>\n
Let’s not kid ourselves about there being any real replacement for a
\nJewish day school education when it comes to instilling a Jewish
\nidentity and guaranteeing that a graduate make Jewish choices later in
\nlife. Daily Jewish education amid total immersion in a Jewish
\nenvironment is the single greatest guarantor that our children will
\nproudly choose to be Jewish. The same applies to having more Jewish
\nkids. Our community’s number one threat today is not intermarriage but
\nthe pitifully low Jewish birthrate. And more families are choosing to
\nhave less children because in their minds they simply can’t afford
\nthem, especially the tuition.<\/p>\n
Next week the GA will take place in Washington, DC. Sure enough, on
\nthe lengthy agenda there is one breakout session entitled, “Accessing
\nFederal and State Support and Services for Jewish Day Schools.” That is
\nnice, but it’s nowhere near enough. Creating the political will to
\nprovide government funding for parochial school education must be our
\ncommunity’s number one priority. It cannot be just one of many
\nsubjects. And I am declaring my willingness to work with individuals
\nand organizations who are dedicated to seeing this become a reality.<\/p>\n
My passion has always been to bring Jewish values to the outside
\nworld and help heal an increasingly valueless society. But that cannot
\nand will not happen unless we raise a generations of Jewish children
\nwho are versed in Jewish texts, Jewish wisdom, and Jewish history. And
\nif over the next decade we don’t find a way to secure permanent funding
\nfor Jewish day schools the edifice will come tumbling down.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n