KASHRUS TAX, VOUCHERS & FINANCE

Posted at mentalblog.com / Thread: Jewish demographics in Boston, MA:

A commenter, Schneur, writes:

Re: Jewish schools and their funding:

In the US municipalities, services are provided to residents like police, fire, sanitation, parks, libraries etc. In turn the city gov’t levels a tax which goes to support these services. In our small orthodox world we too have services such as schools, yet the tax we pay (which is the price of Kosher food and their hashgochas) does not go to support yeshivas but to private kashruth moguls like the Levy family, Szenter family and the OU which still needs to account for its income. What does it do with these fees?
It’s clear that none of these kosher fees ever get to our yeshivas.
Thus, imagine a city with services, but whose taxes were sidetracked to private individuals or some special corporate body like the OU.
That is one important reason our schools are in financial trouble.
The OU had a recent discussion in Jewish Action on the plight of our schools, but of course failed to mention this issue.
Schneur 11.22.05 - 1:02 pm Link: #

Berl responds:

An average tuition bill for a frum family (and that is after all the 'discounts') is ~$45K. The annual food bill for same family is ~$20K.
The only foods that come with a real kashrus premium are dairy, meat, and breads (~30% of the total food bill). Said premium is about half of that 30%.
We are now down to 15% of $20K, or $3K annually.
If you take away administrative and other objective costs of kashrus, our fictional family might end up with - what the heck, let’s be generous - $1,5K back in their educational budget.
Thus we have successfully funded slightly over 3% of the $45K. Great!
For the remaining 97%: V-O-U-C-H-E-R-S!

berl, crown heights 11.22.05 - 2:33 pm Link: #

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Furthermore, if we think about the implications of today's demographic trends, we must realize that the current frei-supporting-the-frum economic model is not sustainable in the long run (and you CJP suggestion is still based on that model). 20 years from now, there are not likely to be enough frei Jews to play that important role. An even smaller percentage of those remaining are likely to care about supporting 'authentic Jewish education’. So no matter how many ‘Jewish Philanthropies’ are going to get ‘Combined’, it ain’t going to help Jewish Parents and their Jewish Kids.

BTW, limited voucher programs are already running around the country – including NYC. Vouchers are fundamentally fair and badly needed by many segments of the US population, not just the frum Jews. They are today a matter of survival and Jews need to partner with other groups that are lobbying the Congress on this issue.

To end on a hopeful note, nowhere in the world can a man feed (I mean literally ‘feed’) his family with such an ease as in these United States. If vouchers are made available and Jewish communities take affordable housing issues seriously, even an average working stiff will be able to support a large family here.

berl, crown heights 11.23.05 - 3:35 pm Link: #

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berl-
Besides partnering with other interested population groups on vouchers, perhaps we can put more pressure on the big (non-frum) Jewish establishment. Most of these combined, united and syndicated federations are very active in opposition and appear among the plaintiffs in court cases against the existing programs.

nsker 11.23.05 - 5:21 pm Link: #

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nsker,

I second you sentiments.

On vouchers - vouchers for the poor is only a start.
You are never going to get help on the voucher issue from the 'Jewish establishment' types. These morons see violations of the Establishment Clause in every religious expression that is 'out of the closet'. They want their children to attend nice suburban public schools without ever hearing a single X-mas carol, but do not care a whit that most of these kids marry X-ians.

berl, crown heights 11.23.05 - 6:46 pm Link: #