From the times of Chazal, each Jewish community was charged with establishing appropriate schools for the community’s children.  Of course, the cost of providing appropriate chinuch (which, in the United States means a dual program of Limudei Kodesh and Limudei Chol) is quite significant.  Besides the salaries of our neighbors and friends who dedicate themselves to teaching our children and look to our schools for their livelihood, the costs to maintain school buildings and grounds is high.  While public secular education is paid for by the government with tax dollars, in most of the United States it is up to Torah observant parents to carry the tuition burden of their children’s chinuch.  In Baltimore, we are extremely grateful to the State of Maryland for its funding of some expenses and to The Associated for its generous support of Jewish education, but the vast majority of the cost to provide a Torah chinuch to our children falls on parents, and without tuition payments, it would not be possible to provide our community’s children with appropriate educational opportunities.

The mesiras nefesh of our parent bodies is truly awe inspiring.  The extra jobs and budgeting of family expenses which families take on to pay tuition and give their children a foundation in Torah are the strongest proof that Mi K’amcha Yisroel.  It is very gratifying to be part of a Kehilah which values the chinuch of its children and has a parent body committed to our community’s Mosdos Chinuch.

We are also very fortunate to have generous supporters whose commitment to Torah education transcends the call of duty and ensures that schools can fulfill their financial obligations and operational needs. For decades, these stalwart donors have been the bedrock of our institutions and are deserving of our utmost hakoras ha’tov.

Yet, even with generous donor support, the financial burden of tuition is great and puts an enormous strain on families.  Our schools’ leadership and devoted communal askanim continuously seek, study and analyze any possible plan or program to ease the tuition burden and consult with leaders and activists in other communities in search of ways to relieve the tuition financial burden.  Over the past few years, these askanim have been working extensively with our schools to try and come up with a solution to this dilemma.  Unfortunately, short of public funding, there are no easy answers.

It is this backdrop that makes it so exciting to announce a remarkable tuition relief initiative benefiting Baltimore parents.

While lowering tuition rates without jeopardizing our schools’ ability to pay its faculty and other expenses is a challenging goal, philanthropic sources working with our schools have devised a program to specifically target the burden of tuition.  The foundation of the program is the creation of a central funding source benefitting all of our community’s schools (and thereby all of our community’s families), donations to which do not impact these donors’ other direct support to individual schools.  With an anticipated rollout this summer, the program will rebate to each tuition paying family a portion of the per-student tuition paid over the 2023-24 academic year. This rebate will be sent by each school directly to its parents, and will serve as a direct relief to parents, commensurate with a family’s tuition payments.

In explaining the logic of this program, Dr. Paul Volosov, one of the community leaders who has been involved with the development of the program, noted: “The planning committee was very concerned that this effort help families and not hurt the individual fundraising efforts of each school.  If this program would impact other fundraising efforts, the rebate would be meaningless since there would be a risk that the schools would need to increase tuition charges to cover donations lost to the new program.  All contributors to this fund have committed to continuing their regular donations to the schools at the same or higher levels than in previous years”.

While this year's tuition rebate rate is set at 3.5%, the hope is that, with community support, this program can expand its funding capabilities in coming years; future estimates target a minimum of 3% with a maximum only limited by the amount of funds donated for the rebate program. To this end, the tuition rebate fund will seek and welcomes other donations (which do not impact donors’ other support for our schools), and a family may even opt, in its sole discretion, to donate its rebate back to the tuition rebate fund.

This groundbreaking program represents a significant advancement in supporting our parent body and a strong model for future tuition relief efforts.

The Parent Tuition Rebate Program works as follows:

●       As of July 1, 2024, Baltimore parents who have already fulfilled their tuition obligations for the current (2023-24) academic year will receive a rebate corresponding to 3.5% of their total tuition payments (not including dormitory, food program, special education or other fees). It is anticipated that the rebate checks to parents will be mailed in August.

●       Parents who have not yet completed their tuition payments by July 1 will benefit by having the tuition rebate credited toward their final payment(s). Rebate funds in excess of balances will be sent directly to parents in August.

●       A central, charitable organization (independent of the schools) will be established to receive donations toward future years’ possible tuition rebates, the details of which are not yet completed.  Parents who are interested in donating their rebate back to help fund future rebates, as well as any other contributions, may do so.  Details will be forthcoming over the summer.  Tax deductible receipts will be issued for these donations directly by this central charitable organization.

●       While not guaranteed, it is anticipated that the program’s current donors will continue to support this initiative for several years.

For this initial year, our community’s 10 largest schools have been included in the rebate program.  In future years the committee hopes to add our community’s other schools, as well.

Nobody involved in the planning or coordination of this rebate has any illusion that a 3.5% tuition rebate solves the “tuition crisis” which is present in every major U.S. Jewish community.  However, it is hoped that the rebate will be a small offset of the burden and free up expendable cash for some families, while allowing other families to make a tax-deductible donation for future rebate programs.

Our community continues to benefit broadly from the magnanimous generosity of future-thinking philanthropists.  May HKB”H grant them all of the brachos reserved for those who are osek b’tzorchei tzibbur b’emunah.