We are a grassroots organization of concerned individuals who have joined forces to try to make Jewish education affordable for every family that wishes to send its children to a Jewish day school in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Read our founding document.
Day school education is the strongest guarantee of lasting, positive Jewish identity in our children. Yet the Greater Toronto Jewish community, like communities in many other cities in North America, is at a crossroads because of the affordability of day school education. The future of the excellent, diverse Jewish educational system in our city is at risk.
Tuition for Jewish day school education in our community is unbearably high:
- Toronto day school tuition increased by 61% from 2001 to 2011, while household income rose only 11% during the same period. That set the stage for the affordability crisis of the last 10 years.
- The average elementary tuition was $16,737 in 2019–2020, too high for middle income families to afford.
- 31% of Jewish school-age to youth were enrolled in grades 1 to 12 in Toronto Jewish schools in 2011. The Centre for Jewish education estimates that only 24% were enrolled by 2019.
- Enrolment at TanenbaumCHAT, the community high school, dropped from a high of 1,530 in 2008/2009 to 1,017 in 2019/2020, a 34% reduction.
- In 2017, TanenbaumCHAT received an extraordinary $14 million donation that allowed the school to reduce tuition by $10,000, to $18,500 a year. That led to a rebound in enrolment.
- For elementary schools, there was no such relief. Four schools have closed in the last two years. Elementary enrolment continued its decline and dropped by 272 students in 2019/2020.
Be part of the solution!
1. Be informed. Join the GAJE mailing list for weekly updates so that we can keep in touch with you. Help us get the word out about the most important issue facing our community, and be part of the solution.
2. Support GAJE’s court case to get public funding for the schools.
3. Tell community leaders that saving our day schools should be our highest priority.
