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Jewish World Review / June 23, 1998 / 29 Iyar, 5758
By Neil Rubin
UNTIL RECENTLY, most Jews pondering sending their kids
to private Jewish day schools had a simple question: Can we afford it? With
costs approaching $10,000 when all the expenses are tallied, it's been hard
to argue against a combination of sending children to a public schools and
enrolling them in a Jewish youth group.
But following the recent and controversial state Supreme Court
decision in Wisconsin, which allows for public money to fund private
education, and on the heels of private initiatives such as the Avi Chai
Foundation one here, some Jews are closely watching to see if price is
really the issue. Others are anguished over what they see as a rapid
diminishment of Jews' traditional staunch support for public education.
Although it doesn't always capture the headlines, such arguments have
created some of the most passionate struggles here and in other American
Jewish communities.
Predictably, advocates of such options are cheering, saying that more
people of different economic backgrounds will get better education. Equally
expected, opponents view the ruling as a blow to democracy. The vast
majority of kids will continue in public schools, they say, which will now
be depleted of the best students. Even more important, who's to decide
what's a religious school? Could survivors of David Koresh's Branch
Davidians gain public funding for a school?
Mind you, the Wisconsin model is not as evil as some Jews think. Begun
eight years ago, the Milwaukee Parental Choice program enables about 1,500
kids from poor families to attend 23 nonsectarian private schools. Now it
will be expanded to 15,000 students. But it won't happen at once; there's
only 3,600 more spots available for the fall. Thus, new schools are
expected to spring up, further increasing the options in location, cost and
education.
But here's the real catch: The law says that students can decline to take
part in religious observances. And guess what? In many Jewish schools
prayer is mandatory, as is keeping kosher and wearing yarmulka, all of
which is religious observance.
Meanwhile some Jews, with everyone recognizing that private Jewish
education is extremely effective in cultivating Jewish identity, wonder if
they should just abandon the notion of fighting for strong public schools
in favor of building private ones. And they're willing to toss more
resources that way. That's part of the thinking behind the Avi Chai
Foundation initiative, which gives up to $3,000 a year for tuition under
certain conditions.
I have mixed feelings about Jewish private schools. I'm a product of the
Baltimore County public school system. Jewishly, I think that my sister and
I turned out just fine. Friends remind me that today's schools are
radically different than the ones of my fuzzy memory. But back then we had
something more important than the best of schools -- a strong Jewish family
home life, even when we didn't realize it.
When it comes time to decide where to educate our kids, we'll probably
chose a Jewish private school. But that doesn't make me more comfortable
with the self-ghettoization process that's rapidly becoming the essence of
maintaining Jewish identity in America. And that is the most disturbing
part of the Jewish push for private schools.
Thus, regardless of what the courts have to say, I think that Jewish
parents must force their kids who are in private Jewish education to join
groups that include non-Jews. It's what we call the real world. And if Jews
in America are afraid of it, then they need to take a hard look at their
life because their Judaism obviously isn't that strong.
This can be done in a number of ways. There's sports, theater and other
such hobbies. One way not explored enough is that Jewish private schools
could "adopt" public schools of kids their age, particularly ones in poor
areas. Tutoring opportunities abound as do the chances for joint volunteer
service projects.
Only pushing to make our private schools more affordable is a failure of
American Jewry's challenge. In doing that alone, we relinquish our dual
mandate to strengthen the meaning and application of our particular Jewish
values while simultaneously using Judaism to positively affect the well
being of the general society.
It's a challenge that I refuse to relinquish.
Why Jews will continue to oppose school-choice
What happened last week is that Wisconsin's highest court ruled that
taxpayers' money -- about $5,000 a head -- could help pay for sending
Milwaukee kids to parochial schools. By the way, similar decisions are
scheduled to be made in four other states this year. (Georgia is not one of
them, but Sen. Paul Coverdale [R-Ga.] is a national leader in the push for
such tax vouchers.)
JWR contributor Neil Rubin is Editor of the Atlanta Jewish Times.
