Reply To: Tuition Pricing

@nishtdayngesheft
Ill start by saying we are discussing strictly math first. I am suggesting that a tuition committee should be equal to all with set mathematical guidelines that take into account two things, They need to take into account Net Income with net being the key and they need to take into account net expenses. Or you can boil that down to one equation (Income- expenses) and say look at “net revenue”. Now I’ll delve into your pointers
1) If a school only offers reduced tuition to its staff or rebbe then yes of course the math is different and his net revenue is lower. of course he deserves a greater discount. Its whatever the math says.
2) I could be wrong, but my understanding is that if in kollel or kli kodesh, its presumed that you receive a scholarship and don’t need to apply for one. I could be 100% wrong . But I still argue that the math formula assigned to calculate “Net Revenue” is flawed as I will explain in #3-5 below.

Let me just clear the air re parsonage. Its 100% legal and CVS am I saying its wrong. Its also true that I may not get every nuance in how it works. But its surely some tax saving or it wouldn’t be used. So thats a fringe benefit that makes a rebbe’s life less costly.

3-5) My illustration of 90K is poor example that I used for simplification but I confess that its too oversimplified. A better Illustration but a bit mathy is the following. A rebbe is earning $60K gross plus tips and private tutor gigs at $100 for 45 minutes. Lets say that amounts to 60K net after taxes too because of the add ons. Now an accountant earns $130K. After taxes and social security lets say thats $100K. So yes he earns more.

This where I think most tuition committees stop. But its flawed Here is why. Lets look at the expense side aka the outflows of each. An accountant needs to pay for
-food (lets say $500 a week on the low side on average including YT and todays $6 a dozen egg prices) so that’s 25K a year ( really 26 but keeping things even).
-Health care costs: Premiums plus deductibles for employee sponsored plans including dental Roughly 12K but its mostly tax deductible so $10K.
– Yeshiva Tuition for say 3 boys $25K
– Babysitter/ playgroup say 1 child ($550 a month) $6K.
– Chol Hamoed Trips – $1K (probably more but lets say that for now)
Leaving our housing for now.

Now a rebbe receives SNAP, WIC, Free or reduced food before YT via Chasedi Lev, Medicaid, CHS and free tuition for his boys, free sponsored chol hamoed and reduced summer vacations. So his expenses are astronomically lower. He doesn’t have food and health care and tuition expenses. If you sum up my list above it nearly $70K lower. This isn’t counting if he is on HUD too. Now maybe the rebbe doesn’t receive every one of the benefits listed above (maybe he doesn’t have 3 boys in yeshiva) and he only receives 40K worth of my list. That’s still alot lower expenses than the accountant.

6) I am not advocating that a rebbe g-d forbid be poor. A rebbe works hard and in todays days its skill set. I know I can’t be a rebbe and connect with children like they can. Many work hard at night prepping and speaking to parents. Its more than a 9-2 job and its 6 days a week! I am not deaf to their hard work nor hkaras hatov to them. However, this is a math question I believe tuition committees should be purely mathematical calculating inflows minus outflows to see who can afford things.

Does the tuition committee apply this formula and if no why not? Isn’t it fair?