Official Newspaper of SAR High School
The Buzz
October 2013 — Vol. 9, No. 1
What’s Inside
When Day Schools Are No Longer Safe Sexual Abuse in the Jewish Community
By Hilla Katz
The Firebrand Page 2
Over the past few years, stories of sexual harassment in both academic and nonacademic settings have swarmed the Jewish community. These stories have become so common that it is almost impossible to distinguish one humiliating story from the next. Most recently, Yeshiva University, the leader in undergraduate Jewish and secular education, is facing a $680 million lawsuit for its failure to act upon multiple allegations of sexual abuse since as early as the 1950s. “The investigative team found that, up until 2001, there were multiple instances in which the university either failed to appropriately act to protect the safety of its students or did not respond to the allegations at all,” says the official. The incidents reached the public once a group of students filed the lawsuit in July. The actual report filed, which was extremely vague, claimed that the abuse happened on
multiple Yeshiva University campuses, including MTA, Yeshiva University’s high school. As of now, there are 34 plaintiffs. In December 2011, the administration
of the Torah Academy of Bergen County was informed by a teacher that a male student confessed to him/her that he had had
“inappropriate sexual contact” with a female teacher who, for unrelated reasons, was no longer employed by TABC. The administration took immediate action by contacting both the Bergen County Prosecutor’s office and the TABC parent body. They assured the parent body that the administration would offer full support to parents, students and teachers and that “TABC has zero tolerance for this type of behavior by adults. Our priorities are the welfare and safety of our students and the community at large.” Guidelines for proper student-teacher interactions were reiterated to both the faculty and students and a meeting was held with the parent body to discuss exactly how to approach this topic at home. Camp Dora Golding, by comparison, allegedly handled its own situation with much less concern for the victims than TABC. According to a post on failedmesContinued on page 8
How We Gonna Pay Last Year’s Tuition?! State of the School Page 10
Pizza Block Page 3
The Tuition Crisis in Jewish Day Schools
By Deena Nerwen Plenty of factors run through the minds of Jewish parents as they decide where to send their children to school. Quality of the teachers, location, and the caliber of its mission statement (of course) all come into play. Yet, more so in recent years, there is one component that has been at the top of many parents’ lists while making this choice. The dilemma that so many in our community face has been dubbed “the Jewish day school tuition crisis,” and its effects are damaging and widespread. It’s time to face the facts. According to the Affordable Jewish Education Project (AJE), there are three main elements involved in the crisis. First is the price, which has been growing exponentially for years. Second is scholarship money, the amount of which allocated to the average student has also been rising. Third is the combination of these two factors, which creates a vicious cycle. When tuition is increased, more families need more scholarship money, forcing additional tuition increases.
There are a few financial specifics worth understanding about Jewish day schools in comparison with North American independent schools. Interestingly, these schools give out an average of ten to fifteen percent for scholarship, while Jewish schools give twenty-five percent. In addition, the top twenty independent schools have an average
endowment of $200,000,000 each, and Jewish ones combined have only $300,000,000. An important area currently discussed in relation to day school affordability is middle income affordability. Independent schools don’t generally fund families earn-
ing $200,000 a year or more, who are often in the top percentages of earners within the United States; they’re giving scholarships to people with very modest salaries. But Jewish schools are, often because families have multiple children in a school, which can lead to an exorbitant percentage of their incomes being spent on tuition. However, giving scholarships to these middle to upper-middle class families is becoming an increasing problem, as it is very difficult to sustain this level of financial aid. Simultaneously, sometimes these families earn too much to be eligible for a scholarship cut, yet they are still struggling to make ends meet. Tuition costs and their financial effects have caused many families to look at other options. Some choose to send their children to public or charter schools. A couple who was profiled in Gary Rosenblatt’s May 2013 article in The Jewish Week, “The Day School Dilemma,” had their child accepted into a new Hebrew charter school, the Harlem Hebrew Language Academy Charter School. Schools like these teach Hebrew Continued on page 15