New means-assessed places at Melbourne Jewish schools are in demand

Families with children in state schools have been quick to apply to a new fee assessment board, reports BENJAMIN PREISS

A new initiative designed to encourage families at state schools to move into the Jewish education system has received applications for 60 students in the first fortnight since it opened. 

The new fee assessment board, which opened for applications in mid-June, is aimed at families who have chosen state schools for their children because they cannot afford full fees at Jewish schools.

The two-year pilot program will allow parents to apply for vacancies at six Jewish schools: Bialik College, King David School, Leibler Yavneh College, Mount Scopus Memorial College, Sholem Aleichem College and Yeshivah - Beth Rivkah Colleges.

The board will assess applications from families, taking into account their capacity to make a “fair contribution” based on their individual financial circumstances. 

Using a set economic model, the board will then decide how much each applicant can afford to pay. 

Each child in the program will be entitled to remain at their chosen school until graduation but they will be reassessed every year to ensure their fees match their family’s current circumstances. 

The model assesses each applicant’s income, assets and liabilities but does not examine their personal expenditure. It estimates living costs based on “reasonable averages” for Victorian Jewish households. 

The newly established charitable company Jewish Education Foundation is the governing body for the board.  

Foundation chair Alan Schwartz said it could become a “game-changer” if the schools eventually delegated responsibility for all fee assessments to the board. 

“That would be completely transformative,” he said. 

Schwartz said the board will consider de-identified applications and they will be confidential.

“We don’t want to pry in people’s private lives other than we must know their income and we must know their assets and liabilities.” 

However, Schwartz said the economic model could not account for all circumstances - such as having to care for ill family members - and he encouraged applicants to disclose any cause for special consideration. 

“Everyone has a story and they’re all good stories,” he said. “But we have to decide what the story is worth.” 

Schwartz said he was thrilled the program had already received applications from 29 families for a total of 60 children. He hoped at least 40 children would find places at Jewish schools over the two-year trial.

He said going through the fee assessment board meant parents would be spared the discomfort of having to ask their preferred school directly for fee relief. 

 “We think there’s a significant number of them who find that embarrassing and confronting.” 

The program is currently only available to students enrolled in state schools. 

Students who secure a place through the program at Sholem Aleichem College, which is a primary school, will be able to continue on to a participating Jewish secondary school through the initiative. 

The participating schools nominate the number of places they’re willing to make available through the program. 

In addition, the Erdi Foundation has committed funds so that some families who cannot afford to pay anything will be able to send their children to Jewish schools. 

“For equity purposes we always want to have some children who really can’t afford to pay,” Schwartz said.    

The cost of a Jewish education has become prohibitive for a rising number of families and many have turned to the public education system. 

A discussion paper released by the Jewish Education Foundation last month said the annual cost of educating a year 12 student at mainstream Jewish schools ranged between $34,000 and $39,000. 

These costs, the report said, help explain why Victoria’s estimated school age Jewish population grew by 16 per cent between 2006 and 2016 but enrolments in Jewish schools only increased by 4 per cent. 

It cited Australian Bureau of Statistics data that showed 30 per cent of Jewish primary-aged children attended government schools in 2006 but 10 years later it reached 38 per cent.

“For Jewish schools, the shift towards state schooling creates a vicious circle. The fixed costs of operating the schools must be shared among a smaller number of children, thereby driving up the cost of education for those who remain,” the report said. 

Photo: Junior students at Mount Scopus look at a Sefer Torah with prinicipal Rabbi James Kennard (Mount Scopus)

Disclosure: Benjamin Preiss is a board member of Sholem Aleichem College