No frills? No problem

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2009 5:02 pm

Port Washington’s answer to the tuition crisis

Michael Orbach

Issue of August 21, 2009 / 1 Elul 5769

A so-called “no frills” yeshiva is one of the solutions proposed to solve the tuition crisis threatening Jewish education.

An recent attempt to create a day school without commonplace “extras” such as small class sizes, sports teams and other extra-curricular activities failed to gain traction in Bergen County. However, one such school may already exist on Long Island.

“It’s certainly a no-frills price,” said Rabbi Shalom Paltiel, dean of the Chabad-run Max and Ruth Schwartz Torah Academy in Port Washington. “We don’t have a choir or an orchestra or a uniformed football team. It’s a gorgeous campus and we’re doubling our facility to include a high school gymnasium and a science lab donated by the Gruss foundation. Our principal’s last job was as an assistant superintendent of the Manhasset School district. Our teaching staff is excellent and we keep them with pensions and salaries that can compete with anyone. If you call that no-frills, then we’re certainly no frills.”

The Schwartz Torah Academy, founded twelve years ago by Rabbi Paltiel and his wife Sara, is blurring the strict demographic line between public schools and yeshivas. Initially founded as a preschool, the school expanded to a full-fledged elementary school with the help of donors including Henry Schwartz, founder of Elmhurst Dairy, and now has 200 students. While the school’s original mission was to lure children from public school to yeshiva, with a price tag of $7100 per child, close to three thousand dollars less than the average yeshiva or Jewish day school in the Five Towns, Rabbi Paltiel has been fielding inquiries from Five Towns parents who are strongly considering sending their children to Port Washington.

“Our missions statement is to keep kids out of public schools — the non-Orthodox families who are interested in yeshiva — so we priced it accordingly,” Paltiel explained, evaluating that the cost to educate each student is far higher than what he charges. He noted that given the current turbulent economic climate, the school’s clientele “may extend to the orthodox families who are having a hard time.”

Class-sizes range between sixteen and twenty children per class. Rabbi Paltiel keeps his cost down by not having too many extra-curriculars, like sports teams or after-school programs. Similar to Chabad operations across the world, Rabbi Paltiel relies on extensive fundraising. He estimates that he fundraises roughly one million of his three million dollar budget.

“I’m blessed with a powerful board of directors and they just buy into this place,” Rabbi Paltiel said, “Families that benefit become your biggest allies.”

Rabbi Paltiel does not view the Schwartz Torah Academy as a rival to the mainstream yeshivas and day-schools.

“I don’t see myself as competing with any of these yeshivas, if you can afford the Lexus you’re not going to take the Avalon. We’re not a Hyundai,” he laughed. “An Avalon is a Lexus without a tuxedo.”

As for attracting Orthodox families, Paltiel considers it a natural consequence.

“I don’t think anyone else is giving affordable excellence. There’s a lot of affordability and there’s a lot of excellence. There’s not a lot of affordable excellence,” Rabbi Paltiel explained.

Rabbi Paltiel’s experience stands in contrast to a grim study published in July by the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish education in conjunction with Yeshiva University, that found less than a quarter of Jewish day schools had a long-range financial plan. Conducted through emails with 70 day school presidents, The Survey of Governance Practices of Jewish Day Schools, also found that most presidents felt that their boards under-performed in fundraising and strategic planning.

“The affordability challenge is bigger than anyone thinks,” Harry Bloom, an Azrieli doctoral candidate and the study’s designer said in a conference after the study’s publication.

Elie Rosenfeld, a board member at The Yavneh Academy in Paramus, N.J., a modern Orthodox school in Bergen county, was candid about the possibility of more no-frills yeshivas.

“I want to know if these people are having trouble paying their mortgage and grocery bills, in which case the yeshiva administration should do everything possible to keep these kids in yeshiva. If the parents can’t pay, or if the parents don’t see the value — are these people saying ‘I don’t value yeshiva education enough to stop driving a fancy car and going on vacation’ — there’s a big difference.”

According to Rosenfeld, there isn’t any easy solution to the affordability issue since close to 80-85% of a yeshiva budget is spent on payroll and benefits and the only way to cut costs is by giving up something.

“The only way to change the model we have in the modern Orthodox yeshiva system is to decide that we’re going back to a model of increased class size and take away assistant and rotating teachers in certain classes. Yeshivas in Brooklyn, Monsey, and Queens that have lower tuitions are putting 30 boys in a classroom with one rebbe; the HAFTRs and HANCs and HALBs are putting 22 kids in a class with a morah and an assistant. There’s your tuition crisis,” asserted Rosenfeld. “Decide you want 30 kids in a classroom with one teacher and drop your tuition. You just saved yourself a salary and probably more.”

Allen Roffe, a dentist who lives in Hewlett, is moving four of his six children to the Schwartz Torah Academy this coming year.

“We started feeling what we’re paying for was not commensurate with the education we were getting,” said Roffe, whose child was having trouble with basic Hebrew skills and was unhappy in a modern Orthodox yeshiva. “My children need to know that the world is not a Jewish place, Chabad teaches them to be proud that God made them a Jew. So you don’t know all of Shoftim? Who cares? You’ll learn it in seventh grade. First you need to appreciate it. All they’re getting [from their old school] is resentment.”

“We’re hearing kids going to public school. We hear parents complain about the tuition every week. With the money I’m saving, I’ll be home more, my wife will be home more, and we won’t have that financial tension that permeates a house. With the money we’re saving we can fly to Israel three times a year.”

Roffe estimated that he will save close to $13,000 by the move and he isn’t modest about his feelings for for the move.

“I don’t think it’s a homerun,” Roffe said. “I think it’s a grandslam.”

Editorial: Even Bernie couldn't do this alone