A helping hand for a Jewish education
The Jewish Education Foundation has been responsible for the enrolment of 28 pupils in Victorian Jewish day schools for whom the cost would have been prohibitive.
The Jewish Education Foundation (JEF) is now halfway through a two-year pilot of the Fee Assessment Board (FAB).
Chair of JEF, Alan Schwartz, said: “We are delighted that the 28 children enrolled in Jewish schools during the first year of the pilot generated an estimated $3m in additional revenue for our schools until the children graduate.”
In total, the FAB received applications from over 100 children wanting to enrol in a Jewish school.
Reflecting on the better-than-expected results of the pilot so far, Mr Schwartz noted that “While all our schools are already providing fee support to families in financial need, the pilot has shown us that there is a real need in our community to supplement the existing school fee support with an independent process to assess parents’ capacity to pay fees. We are grateful to our schools for cooperating to make this possible and to the philanthropists for helping to fund this important initiative.”
The FAB provides an alternative means of assessing the capacity of parents in government schools to pay fees in a Jewish school via a simple, non-intrusive and independent process.
Applicants complete an online application form, providing details of their family size, housing, income, assets and liabilities. They choose their school of choice based on availability. Parents also have the option of outlining any special circumstances that impact their ability to pay fees.
Parents are notified of their fee discount and choose whether they wish to proceed with the enrolment or not. There is no obligation to continue with the process. Those who decide to proceed follow the school’s normal admission processes.
Once the enrolment is confirmed, students are entitled to remain at the school until their education is completed for the annual fee assessed by the FAB.
The participating Melbourne schools are Bialik College, King David School, Leibler Yavneh College, Mount Scopus Memorial College, Sholem Aleichem College and Yeshivah Beth Rivkah Colleges.
As expected, an analysis of the 2021 census demonstrates a significant decline in Jewish day school attendance, with the percentage of Jewish children attending government primary schools rising from 35% to close to 40% in just ten years.
The FAB is seeking to help address these challenges by welcoming more children into Jewish schools for a fee that is accessible.
Kevin Slomoi, Chair of the Fee Assessment Board, said that “In 2022, there were about 4000 Jewish children in non-Jewish schools and 700 vacancies in existing classes in Jewish schools. It makes good sense to fill those places with children who want to be in a Jewish school by assessing them to pay a fair fee based on their individual circumstances.”
In consultation with the schools, a number of improvements have been made to the 2023 pilot.
He added: “We carefully analysed the results of the 2022 pilot and realised that we need to make school fees more accessible for middle-income families while ensuring that the model is sustainable.
The 2022 FAB model allowed very low-income families to receive a 100% discount, however, this is not sustainable in the longer term. We have adjusted the model to take into account costs of living and interest rate increases, and to ensure that all parents make a minimum contribution towards fees.”
The next round of assessments will be open from 5 February 2023 to 12 March 2023, and children will have the option of commencing at the Jewish school in mid-2023 or the beginning of 2024.
To apply to the FAB, contact Nechama Bendet on 0425770002 or email [email protected]
