Passover is less than three weeks away. The centerpiece of the holiday’s ritual, the Seder, was designed as the paradigmatic instrument of education for our children. It is not too soon, therefore, as we prepare for the holiday to think about it in specifically educationally-related terms and to heighten our focus on the affordability of Jewish education.
In this regard, once cannot overstate the importance of the recent reduction in CHAT’s 2017-2018 tuition. It is an example of the bold, creative, generous thinking that must be brought together from diverse sources to make Jewish education affordable in perpetuity.
As we wrote last week however, this dramatic cut in tuition must be but the beginning of the community’s effort to make Jewish education affordable. Tuitions must be dramatically reduced in all the day schools and brought down even further at CHAT.
Thus, the first order of urgent communal business is to persuade, convince and plead with as many families as possible to enroll or re-enroll their children at CHAT next year.
Higher enrollment will encourage other community philanthropists and/or education-oriented community investors to contribute to the community-wide effort of making education more affordable. Higher enrollment will help guarantee the continued high quality of education in the day schools. It may also result in the eventual re-opening of CHAT’s northern branch.
Thus, we again urge families to enroll their children in CHAT.
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Shabbat shalom.
GAJE
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 