Community Magazine July 2014

TAMMUZ 5774 JULY 2014 87 What Parents and Donors are Saying and help our children make friends within the community. Our yeshivot prepare our children to be the future community leaders. And it is therefore vital that no community child be denied a yeshiva education due to a lack of affordability. Giving more to our yeshivot will drive down the cost of tuition. Aggressively supporting Jewish education is the single most important thing we can do as a community. It is an investment for now and for our future. Please go to our website at www.projectedu.org to learn more and sign on. You can help us raise awareness about the tuition crisis and motivate more community members to contribute to our yeshivot. You can also find links to our partner schools to read about the great things they are doing and how they are using current tuition dollars to benefit our children. Also, look for future articles about this important topic and share them with your family and friends. Project Education is working with the schools to make positive change happen so our community children can have the best and most affordable education possible – because education matters. Project Education received grants from the Orthodox Union and UJA Federation of NY to look at the issue of tuition affordability in our community. Eight focus groups were held during 2013 and a community-wide survey yielded nearly 1000 responses. Eighty-one percent of those surveyed believe that all children in our community should have a Jewish day school education. Almost all the respondents indicated that a yeshiva education is essential for teaching Jewish rituals, values and culture, for keeping their children in the community, and for excellence in secular studies. Seventy-two percent of respondents said that they were most concerned about affordability, the financial strain it places on their families. Is response to the question of whether they felt they were getting good value for their tuition, 53 percent answered “very much so” or “somewhat.” These sentiments were further confirmed in the focus groups, where many participants conveyed the idea that they did not have confidence in the way the schools manage their budgets. There is a widely-held belief that most in the community do not give ma’aser , 10 percent of their earnings, to charity, whether through a tuition bill or other form of giving. When asked what would motivate participants to donate or donate more to their child’s school, more than 40 percent of respondents said they wanted a better explanation of school expenses and overhead. Thirty-three percent want the schools to collaborate to reduce overhead costs. Studies indicate that many people donate toward both Jewish and non-Jewish causes, but that the majority of donations is made to institutions outside our community. The results of the focus groups and survey clearly indicated that although education is the highest priority for donors, it was not in line with their giving patterns. In other words, those who are able are not giving to community schools. The results also indicated that parents are very worried about how their children will earn enough to afford to live in the community, even with a quality college education. This is a concern that is broader than our community, as it has national implications. One fact is certain – parents believe that higher education is necessary for their children to compete in a global economy.