Day Schools from page 32
Analyzing Impact
What impact will this model have on
the financial bottom line of schools?
At the simplest level, none; the per-
centage of income required as tuition
can be set so as to produce approxi-
mately the revenues that schools
receive now.
But more thoughtfully, it offers
exciting possibilities for increas-
ing revenues, enrollment and fiscal
accountability. Here are just a few of
them:
• Dan Perla of the Avi Chai
Foundation argues cogently that set-
ting school payments as a percentage
of income during a recession is an
excellent investment, as when times
improve, revenues will rise much
faster than costs.
• Families who now avoid day
school because of the uncertainties
and indignities of the financial aid
process may now enroll.
•Wealthier families may donate
significantly more when they see their
tuition payments as reflecting a dis-
count.
•Administrators will have a much
clearer sense of revenues, and the
entire school community will be more
accountable for designing the school
so that it remains within the financial
ambit of its constituency.
• The fiction of a "financial aid bud-
get" that can be "used up" leads many
schools to forego revenues that would
be almost pure net profit. Students
who pay a significant portion of gross
family income as tuition generally
contribute more than the marginal
cost of their education.
This new model requires elabora-
tion and customization, but it can
redirect the community's conversation
and efforts toward a model of day
school financing that is financially and
morally sustainable.
❑
Rabbi Aryeh Klapper is dean of the Center
for Modern Torah Leadership and teaches
rabbinic literature at Gann Academy, a
pluralistic Jewish high school in Waltham,
Mass. This article was first published by
Jewish Ideas Daily (www.jewishideasdaily.
com) and is reprinted with permission.
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June 7 •2012
33