By COLlive reporter
In recent weeks, Bais Yaakov of Boro Park published an advertisement in the Haredi press declaring a fiscal crisis and an emergency appeal to the community.
“For the first time we are making some cuts. We are starting to consolidate some classes,” explained Rabbi Yeruchem Shapiro, executive director of the girls school with 2,100 students.
“Until now we have tried to have smaller classes, trying to provide more individualized attention,” he told Hamodia in an interview.
Asked to what does he attribute the crisis, Shapiro answered: “We lost about 400 children. Since we didn’t cut the number of classes, that is a loss of about $2 million.”
Another reason, he said, was the new building for which he got a lot of pledges from people, “but we didn’t get the expected donations from them.”
There is touble closer to home in Crown Heights as well, as teachers of more than one school told COLlive they have not received their paychecks in months.
“We are human beings too,” one teacher who asked to remain anonymous told COLlive. “You pay for the dentist, you pay for the bungalow and your mortgage – you should pay for chinuch too.”
A principal of a school in Crown Heights, who also asked to remain anonymous because he is not involved with tuition, says his hands are tied.
“I’m not getting into efficiency of management, and I’m not talking about the slump of donations because of the economy,” he said.
“The real issue is that people see tuition as something that’s optional, a voluntary thing. And in these times it hurts us even more.
“If I could speak directly to parents I would say: Folks, time to pay for what’s important in life.”
i stay in crown heights every summer.
i can tell how many people go away.
maybe once upon a time 90% left, but no more.
CH was a lot more full this summer.
I think you meant to say: HYPOCRITICAL
What do you expect from 19 & 20 year olds without any real experience or training? It might have worked back then, but it’s sure not working now. Shame on us (Chabad) for our negligence.
ACCORDING TO YOUR REACTION,
it is very likely that you are either one of the administrators,
or a close relative to one of them,
the point is, that these poor parents have already been skinned to the bone,
cant you understand???
do they have a choice , when committing to the price that was forced onto them ?
whats their choice ?
sending their child to PUBLIC SCHOOL ??
is this the choice the rebbe expects from us??
WAKE UP and see the other side of the coin
There are some thoughtful posts here (and at least one which must come from someone whose education failed him/her). Not that I think this mode of communication is effective, but to air my thoughts: Yesterday is not today. Its problems and solutions are not today’s. Yesterday’s education – a warm and fuzzy “chassidishe” chinuch (though a necessary foundation) needs more: Clear standards, goals, objectives, tools, stimulating curriculum (yes, in and for every and many different limudei kodesh subjects) to which the school (admin & teacher) is openly accountable. Yesterday’s people – a school administrator who lived a life of mesiras… Read more »
from #54 I don’t understand your reaction. Who said anything about not letting kids into school? Even parents are “community members”, who with some heartfelt exceptions should participate in their children’s chinuch. Didn’t parents used to hire a melamed to teach their children? This is not a new concept. Therefore, now that the “community” knows “they” are not fulfilling their responsibility, because teachers are unpaid (and therefore can’t pay the tuition of their own children), instead of yelling at the administrations, EVERYBODY write a check today to each school in their community. Imagine you would tell the Rebbe that teachers… Read more »
You are so wrong. Look in the Alter rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch Hilchos Talmud Torah right in the begining he clearly states that tuition is mainly the burden of the community, not necessarily that of the parents. Only if they can afford it did the custom changed to have the parents pay themselves. Chinuch of children is a community responsibility. And anyone who thinks differently has no business being in Chinuch. . . LUBAVICTH takes pride in finding one jew on some remote island, and educating him about YIDISHKEIT, and that trip may have costed thousands of dollars, and when we… Read more »
I don’t know what other camps are like, but CGI – Detroit has given me the tools to be a Chassid. I never heard a curse word there, and one time when a few kids raided bunks, the HC’s took care of it that day, in front of the whole camp. Camp – Detroit is probably better than what it used to be.
If a family is told to pay, say $3,000 and sends the child to school, is there not an implied consent to pay? If you go to a restaurant and order something from the menu, is there not an implied consent to pay when you eat the food? I don’t understand why it is okay to decide that tuition is something we each personally decide what we FEEL like paying, not what we contracted to pay.
I always wonder how families manage to pay phone bills, utilities, car payments, etc, but tuition become the negotiable expense. How many of you complain that the heads of those companies make too much money, so you won’t their bill? What about the heads of kosher food manufacturers? Maybe you should refuse to pay the prices you are being asked to, and only pay what you think is fair and reasonable, and let all of these companies hire fundraisers to meet their budgets. Then we could all afford to pay tuition. To #5- actually having children to educate, send to… Read more »
hypocrisy
i dont know what camp you go to but ive been to camp and ive been a counselor and my sibilings have gone to camp i have news for you ! many times kids gain more in camp in one month then an entire year at school- bjj teen camp – has an amazing program worth going to and it is a priority because you can really affect and change a kid there – i dont remeber witch camp it was my brother went to but he had a hard time learning in yeshiva, he went to camp and was… Read more »
my parents are struggling with tuition , we cant afford it and we dont have a bungalow or go on vacations, we cant pay our electric, or gas bills either, maxed out credit cards.. hardly have money for food and we have to worry about what to do with my sibilings cus we cant afford school! so not everyone puts tuition last lots of people REALLY cant afford it! and we dont get off the hook at all they give us problems with tuition all day and like #45 no matter how many kids leave the school you pay for… Read more »
THE MENAHALIM ***MUST*** either hire FUNDRAISERS, or get out of their comfortable seats, hit the road 5.5 days a week and FUNDRAISE! or else what actualy puts him in this position??? Don’t collect an executive salary when you are only a fancy secretary who knows how to push computer buttons and find delinquent poor parents whom to squeeze under threat of sending their kids home. And nobody will stick up for them exactly because they are poor. WOWWWW mighty powerful “ADMINISTRATOR” SHAME ON YOU, humiliating the already humiliated, and broken hearted, who dont have the ability to stand up for… Read more »
It is an accepted principle, both in Judaism and in the prevailing secular culture, that the community/society bears the financial burden of educating its younger generation. Bearing this in mind, I have two major suggestions. #1 We need to demand school vouchers from the government more vociferously. Tax money should be available for private schools just as it is for public schools. #2 A tremendous amount of money is literally WASTED on weddings and other such simchas. This is money that could and should be going for tuition/donations to schools. Other communities have literally imposed regulations limiting expenditures on weddings.… Read more »
ask any parent after negotiating a tuition break, if he/she found an extra thousand dollars for tzedakah would they thing of giving that money to the school??? most would find another more worthy cause.
we have to rething our collective school situation and take responsibility for paying for our kids chinuch -not tuning out the crisis at hand with most teachers going without food on their table for months on end.
However, it is often a choice we make, tuition or food,
We dont own or lease acar, we dont own ahome, we dont go on any vacations, we dont send our children to camp,
We are both employed , work hard and budget carefully,
Try as we may our tuition costs are beyond our present capability not because its not important to us,
We appreciate the teachers and the chassidishe chinuch …however we are in a finacial bind…
when my parents had only one child left in school, they were asked to apy almost as much as four children (who have long graduated). There must be a solution. we just need to look at ourselves and start there.
You write “Parents who do not pay full tuition DO NOT have the right to demand of members of hanhola to collect money to pay for their children’s tuition. ” You are so wrong. Look in the Alter rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch Hilchos Talmud Torah right in the begining he clearly states that tuition is mainly the burden of the community, not necessarily that of the parents. Only if they can afford it did the custom changed to have the parents pay themselves. Chinuch of children is a community responsibility. And anyone who thinks differently has no business being in Chinuch.… Read more »
TO 41
I agree with you 100%
I was just listening to the news on the radio and the following item was covered: Day laborers in New Orleans (even illegal immigrants) are often taken advantage of and not paid the amount promised by the date promised. The police put out notices that any such laborer should call the police who will force the employer to pay or be arrested. I am not chalilah making an analogy about the police, but just to show how serious holding back pay is. And we don’t need New Orleans, L’Havdil what’s the Torah Law in paying a sachir??
I’m sorry to say, but your personal experience in camp cannot reflect the truth of what camp is all about. I’ve spoken to many mashpiim, and they said that camp is one of the biggest problems in lubavitch right now. I personaly learned all my curse words from camp…. Most people will tell you there is nothing good about camp, beruchnius that is. take Chicago and Toronto as a good example, giving the kids only 5 weeks of vocation, not 9. Take a better example of ALL the schools in eretz yisroel, and give them only THREE weeks of vocation.… Read more »
to #5- very good points you make. You should take over the administration!
to add a detail camps dont pay their staff
My wife is a teacher and her school is five months behind in paying her salary. I was a teacher on a minimum begginers teacher salary, but I am now being asked to accept half the hours and less than half the salary because the school does not have money to hire me at all. The reason: last year they banked on being paid tuition, most parents did not pay what they were obliged to, and many paid no tuition at all. Parents who do not pay full tuition DO NOT have the right to demand of members of hanhola… Read more »
“תני רב תחליפא אחוה דרבנאי חוזאה, מזונותיו של אדם קצובין לו מראש השנה, חוץ מהוצאת שבת וימים טובים, והוצאת בניו לתלמוד תורה, שאים פחת פוחתין לו ואם הוסיף מוסיפין לו”
ספר אבודרהם
First, to #19 (and #5 eluding to it too): Where is your אמונה? (To say the least…) Do you really think that learning secular studies has anything to do with the amount of money you make? You don’t even need אמונה to see that this is not the case. Think of the wealthy families you know, whether in Crown Heights, or elsewhere. Can any of their wealth be attributed to secular studies? (Dri…, Chi…, Mal…, Rub…, Boy…, etc. etc.) STOP WITH THE כפירה!!!! Wealth is a direct result of ברכת השם היא תעשיר, check out היום יום to see what… Read more »
After reading the above comments, some of which were excellently written, I have only one more point to add. It’s called camp. Someone wrote – “it’s not a luxury anymore”. I agree 100% – i can tell you personally what a tremendous difference camp can make in a person’s life. And I strongly believe that camp is necessary for every child. But wait a second here, so far, there have been complaints about prices of tuition in the schools – of course children must go to school. But what about the exorbitant prices of camp?!!!! I know plenty of people… Read more »
Well said. You should have hatzlochoh in all your work.
It’s the administrators who have the fanciest homes with manicured front lawns and summer homes in the Catskills along with their several times a year scheduled vacations to Israel and the rest of the world. And these are not fundraising trips. I NEVER went to the Catskills for a summer and I see Crown Heights is plenty full of hundreds of families who can’t afford country just like me. And these are the people that are suffering the most. And these are the people who are most humiliated by the vacationing administrators. In most cases the administrators will not press… Read more »
Some posters claim that administrators pay themselves first. If this is true, it is a disgrace. I am very familiar with schools right here (brooklyn) that have the opposite system, and so it should be and I was a “victim” of that for several months but better that adminsitrators’ checks be held up so that teachers get paid. Other bemoan the educational system in CH. So what are you saying? The teachers “are no good” anyway so why sacrifice if your child is getting a poor education! That is so convoluted. Once a teacher is hired, YOU MUST PAY HIM… Read more »
The Rebbe said that there is no reason the government should not pay for expenses for non-public schools, such as utilities, building maintenance, etc. Lubavitch should have a lobbying group to try to get more government support, not only for yeshivas but also for shlaimos ha’aretz.
Also, there are many Jewish organizations that should be supporting Jewish education more but have other agendas because their priorities for Judaism is lacking.
K’sivah v’schasimah tovah.
With all due respect to all those who are in the Catskills all summer- 90% of Crown Heights is upstate every single summer. If every one of those families gave up this LUXURY and paid full tuition, our schools would not be in the shape they are now.
It is an utter chutzpah, and the school administration should absolutely not stand for it.
No more sob stories about not being able to afford it.
If you can spend thousadns on a summer home or bungalow, you can pay more in tuition.
I haven’t read all the comments (my blood pressure gets too high) so if I repeat some previous comments, I apologize. I am a parent (grandparent, actually) a former teacher & I am still paying tuition! My title says it all. Schools must realize 4 things: 1. There is a limit to how much parents can pay. i’m not talking about the ones with homes in EY & the Catskills who drive brand new SUV’s. I mean people like me, who drives an old car, hasn’t had a vacation in years (not counting Chol Hamoed) who is barely holding it… Read more »
“…If they can’t do the job, let them step aside. Lubavitch has done miracles with 25-30 year olds building shuls, schools and multi-million dollar buildings all over the world. Allow them to take over Crown Heights.”…
You are dead-wrong!
where is this info from?
I would suggest you to look it up!!
I personally know teachers who do it because they LOVE to teach and feel this is their shlichus!
You have no right to fabricate lies because you are uneducated and uninformed.
I send 2 kids to BR and i pay 9 K and 2 kids in la i pay 40K for them with the tickets and summer…
BR is a good school and they take in alot of kids that the ‘other school’ ( who by the way is behind and bounces checks on alot of vendors ) we owe them credit and the teachers should be paid..
Every few years this happenes and Rabbi Shemtov comes through!!!!!!! the Rebbe will help and all will be fine !!!!!
A – Most teachers in CH are only teachers because they cant find a better job and letthe truth be told they should all be fired. 90% of the teachers in CH have no clue how to teach so they should be happy with what they have B – as teachers get paid for the summer they do not get paychecks in the summer, most schools do not give out pay checks in the summer. C – for all of you who say go collect money from door to door they are all doing it and thats the problem how… Read more »
do you think anyone is going to sit there and read your megilah of a comment?
i feel bad.. poor teachers.. stuck with a crummy job.
go find a better parnasah.
shana tova.
I heard a story that the Rebbe said to a financial director of a yeshiva that my hassidims should have kids and your job is to find money for the yeshiva
Maybe I’m wrong, but I’d like to play devil’s advocate for a moment. Yes there may be many members of different hanholas who put their unnecessarily large salaries before those of the teachers. But there are still people on whose backs it falls to raise the money and provide for BOTH those salaries, who work very hard and try their best. There are many parents who get out of tuition b’chlal and how much more so it IS harder now with the bad economy. And bli ayin hora our mosdos get bigger and bigger, so there’s more to pay. But… Read more »
I will be realistic. In days of old nobody was turned down for lack of tuition. In ULY the Rashag would travel all the time raising funds. He also employed a full staff to help him raise funds. Namely Rabbi Wineberg, Rabbi Teleshevsky, even Rabbi Tenenbaum would use his vacation days in the summer to raise funds. Rabbi Korenblit and Rabbi Katz were all raising funds for the Yeshiva. Who is fundraising for ULY today? Yes there is a so called Hanholo that is sitting on millions of dollars and are using it for all of their pet causes except… Read more »
i would like to add on what # 5 wrote: Kids today grow up with no minimal secular education, and as a result they grow up forced to work in a low paying dead-end jobs. many people could have become (with the right education)successful in their life and pay full tuition. While our system does not allow kids to learn basic principles to succeed in life, everyone knows that those who went and acquire higher education became the “honoree people” in all of our events!! we continuously discourage people from getting higher education, but once they are graduate we hire… Read more »
I agree. I also wonder why these administrators are not embarrased to flaunt their fancy homes, clothes and lifestyles.
maybe stop with all the askonus, and start going fund raising the old style – from door to door and from gvir to gvir.
all the fancy publicity, removing the rebbe from the table…
Trust in the Rebbe – keep the Rebbe on the table – and I guarantee good results.
Why should we pay for tuition when we learn and recive nothing in return, like everything in life its all about the return on thee invesment and to date Yeshivas provide you or your children with no or little life skills. So that when they enter the real world if they are not going on Shlicus will be stuck in a $20k a year job since they having nothing they can offer such as a degree or real skills.
#5 hits it perfectly I mean there might not be any young people who are going to want to become teachers if this is the situation
it’s time to stop sending the kids to the same scummy schooles that are not willing to change there style of not giving proper education to our kids who will grow up and frawn on the schools for abusing them
3 very wealthy people in crown heights who pay the minimun in Bais Rivkah and I know Reb L and B S know them but there are his friends and dont wont to start with them…
I would propose to post names of people and what they pay to embarrass them…….
there is a difference between people who really can’t afford it, and people who come away from meeting the tuition comitee knowing they “got a deal”, my husband has dedicated his life to chinuch, as such, we budget carefully to make by on his salary MAYBE THE CHINUCH CRISIS TODAY IS BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE NOT WILLING TO MAKE SACRIFICES FOR THEIR CHILDREN’S CHINUCH tuition should be on the list right after mortgage, food, insurance etc., many people who get cuts on tuition drive cars that are not basic, have money to renovate thier homes and dress thier children in expensive… Read more »
You are right on the money!!
The rebbe never told anybody to work for free!!
We had not been getting paid by a shliach for a few months, but their cleaning ladies were getting paid on time, because they are afraid they would leave!!
The administration knows that the teachers are not leaving!!
Changes need to be made.
it is NOT normal to be behind on payments.
Teachers have many mouths to feed B”H and that should be the schools TOP priority.
They need to fundraise or hire people to do the fundraising for them!!
Let’s see how much the members of the various admins are being paid. A mosod like Beis Rivkah cannot possibly afford to be paying a quarter of a million dollars a year to the administrators. If they are paying the hanholo this much, it’s time for a paycut so that teachers can be paid.
On another note, as an out-of-towner I can tell you that what you people pay in tuition is a joke! I pay 8000 a year per child – on scholarship…
Gut Gezogt!!
SCHOOLS NEED TO START FUNDRAISING, THE TEACHERS NEED TO GET PAID NO MATTER WHAT, parents try to pay what they can pay, but it is hard thats where the fundraising is suppose to kick in, why am i writing this nothing is ever gonna change this is crown heights
“You pay for the dentist, you pay for the bungalow and your mortgage – you should pay for chinuch too.”
Lets remember there is a uge amount of people including myself who don’t go to the country – because we don’t have the money. We don’t go on any vacation. But tuition is tough to pay – we try our best but can’t pay it in full.
What are yeshivos doing about the economay lots of people that had decent jobs have lost them – what do we do – should we send our kids to public school?
I also haven’t gotten paid from the end of last year. B”h the school I teach in was pretty good about paying on time for most of the year, but the last month from last year, we’re still waiting for.
While it may be true that there are some people who have mixed up priorities in what’s important in life. We should honestly explore and identify who is really mixed up. You may find some parents who have this problem of mixed up priorities. But for sure this is not the rule in our community. For all practical purposes most parents are struggling to make ends meet just to put food on the table. Tuition, camp and marrying off children are absolute killers. However, on the part of the accusers who blankedly smear all the parents, let me throw in… Read more »
monsey is also behind 1 month for Hebrew teachers and more for other staff???
How do they live?
This is a terrible vicious cycle. All kids should have access to yeshiva education, but who picks up the tab? Unfortunately, the teachers. In any other work environment including frum ones, people would walk out. As a mechaneches who values children’s education to the utmost, I feel that teachers are so to speak blackmailed. That’s because a guilt trip is laid on them, “How can a rebbi, morah…strike? What about the kids?” I feel for struggling parents but I am astonished that schools, their board members, exec. directors,,,,allow teachers to go unpaid. Very sadly, people indeed have severe money problems,… Read more »
I wonder if the administration has also not gotten paid.
The melamdim of Chabad Chadorim and Yeshivos haven’t been paid in ages… When a company is mismanaged to this degree, the directors are replaced… why in our mosdos are the directors (“shluchim”) in position for life? If a shaliach bankrupts his Chabad House it is he alone (theoretically) who is affected; here the affect ripples down to generations of mechunochim!