The Samis Foundation has been a thoughtful leader in the heroic effort to make Jewish day school more affordable. For decades, the Foundation has put their money where their mouth is in support of several day schools in Washington State, and they have freely shared their expertise and experiences nationally. They recently published a study called “Day School Affordability and the Catholic School Model,” the findings of which are helpful in addressing that subject, and are also a prompt to expand on other lessons that may be drawn from it.

A central premise of the study was a diligently researched response to a challenge to price day schools along the lines of Catholic schools; i.e. to make them more affordable for middle class families. While the two school systems may present as a basis for comparison from a distance, the study clarified that the components of religious education in each of the systems are incomparable.

Whereas Catholic religious instruction is only offered for a brief amount of time each day, the day school’s dual curriculum of Jewish and general studies is far more intensive. That framework requires more time, additional educators with specialized skill-sets who are specifically prepared to instruct in these areas, and other tangential components which make the cost to educate each Jewish student significantly greater than a Catholic one.

Beyond saying that the systems are unequal, not comparable and therefore it is unrealistic to expect that the cost of Jewish education would ever approach the far less cumbersome cost of Catholic school education, there is more to say. Although this was a feasibility study regarding cost and not a document to make the case for Jewish day school, what should be stated explicitly, and what I believe the Foundation would say as well, is that the dual curriculum is not a budget burden, it is the pair of wings that enables graduates to attain Jewish literacy, to feel organically connected to the Jewish people and the Jewish State, and to thrive as citizen activists in the broader community.

Antisemitism as a Cost-Driver

The study noted the intrinsic and inescapable responsibility of day schools to bear the financial load of increased security at this time of increased risk; another differentiating factor with the Catholic system. This conclusion, too, calls for expansion and amplification. The reason that Jewish day schools must bear this cost is because governments have failed to do so. Local, state, and national government charters are all based upon the........

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