Hillel Academy: Ohio voucher expansion a 'big win for students'

Day school anticipates increased enrollment, stronger footing

By Marshall Weiss

The

Observer

With a significantly expanded EdChoice Scholarship student voucher program as part of Ohio's 2024-25 two-year budget, all families in the state are eligible to receive vouchers toward kindergarten through 12th-grade private school tuition beginning with the 2023-24 school year.

Ohio families with an annual income up to 450 percent of the federal poverty level are now eligible for $6,165 per child for Kindergarten through eighthgrade private school tuition, and $8,407 for ninth through 12th grades.

A family of four with an annual income of $135,000, for example, is at 450 percent of the poverty level.

"It's a great change," says Hillel Academy of Greater Dayton Interim Principal Anna Smith. "And not just for Hillel. For students, it's a great win."

Hillel is the Dayton area's Jewish day school, open to Jewish children from kindergarten through sixth grade. It's 2023-24 school year begins Aug. 16.

Families above 450 percent of the federal poverty level will receive scholarship funding tiered at lower levels, but at a mini-

More on the new state budget...8 mum are eligible for 10 percent of the total amounts.

Hillel's full tuition for the 2023-24 school year is $10,000.

"It's a very significant help for families," Smith adds. "Hillel's already a great value, but being able to have the assistance of over 60 percent of the tuition is pretty generous.

"There are some families that automatically rule out private school because of tuition. And having that voucher that expands accessibility, I think, will make them more open to it. It will help students achieve the private-school education that they haven't yet had."

Hillel Academy President Andy Schwartz says that Hillel's longstanding policy is never to turn away a child because of a family's inability to pay.

"We do have scholarship money coming in," he says. "But sometimes we have to go back to the donors to have them increase their amount to cover the gap."

Smith says more than half of

Hillel students currently receive financial scholarships from the school.

Schwartz added that the expanded EdChoice vouchers "will potentially provide additional funds to support the school and make it easier to meet any budgetary gaps that arise."

Located on the third floor of Beth Abraham Synagogue at Sugar Camp in Oakwood, Hillel Academy is able to accommodate 50 students in total each school year.

For the 2023-24 school year, 32 students are currently enrolled.

"We are still taking admissions for all grades," Smith says. "We're open to Jewish students in K to six. We look at transcripts and testing and make sure we can accommodate students' needs."

Schwartz notes that because of the small size of the school, "it is difficult for us to accommodate children with special needs. We don't have the resources."

Smith says children must be accepted to a private school before the state will award the vouchers.

"Parents will contact us. They could technically apply for the vouchers by themselves, but nothing's going to happen until I put them into the system. Once the application opens up, we'll send it out to all of our Continued on Page Four

The polarizing issue of state vouchers for private school tuition can pose a dilemma for parents of school-age children. In the best case, doing what's best for your child is doing what's best for your community. And doing what's best for your community is doing what's best for your child. But in an imperfect world, if you had to choose between doing what you believe is best for your child or doing what you believe is best for your community, which would you choose?

My wife and I profoundly experienced the pain of such a choice 17 years ago, when we made the hard decision not to re-enroll our two children at Hillel Academy Jewish day school. At that time, we saw the secular education there as substandard overall. We wanted our children to have a Jewish day school education. We celebrated the importance of Jewish day school. But not at that cost. Today, we are so happy for the parents who enroll their children at Hillel. We wish the quality of its secular education would've been as excellent when our children were there.

Asa child of a Holocaust survivor, Helen Ostreicher Halcomb always thought about the millions of European Jews who weren’t afforded a proper funeral or burial. It compelled her to dedicate her life to preparing people for their eternal rest and protecting our cemeteries for generations to come.

Even without having anyone buried in one of our local Jewish cemeteries, Helen got involved with the Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton campaign because she believed we needed to take care of our own. “I saw the need, not only in Dayton, but throughout the country in other small Jewish communities. It’s wonderful that Dayton is being proactive and preparing for our future,” said Helen.

“The thought that our cemeteries would go unattended was frightening,” continued Helen. “I wanted to guarantee that I’ve done all that I could to help people find their perfect peace.”

Jewish Cemeteries of Greater Dayton is an endowment organization created to maintain our three Jewish cemeteries in perpetuity. Please join us as we strive to maintain the sanctity, care, and integrity of these sacred burial grounds.