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February 1, 2002/19 Shevat 5762, Vol. 54, No. 20
Scholarship funds exceed $1 million
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
Three local Jewish scholarship tuition organizations garnered more than $1 million in donations for the 2001 tax year.
The Jewish Community Day School Scholarship Fund, overseen by the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, took in approximately $955,000 from more than 1,700 contributors - a 53 percent increase from the year 2000, according to Fred Zeidman, assistant executive director of the federation.
The fund provides scholarships for students at Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School, Pardes Jewish Day School, The King David School, Tri-City Jewish Community Center Day School, Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center Kindergarten and Beth El Kindergarten.
The Chabad Tuition Organization, which funds Phoenix Preparatory High School, gathered $90,000 in donations in 2001, according to Rabbi Zalman Levertov. This is up from about $80,000 in 2000.
Rabbi David Rebibo said donations through Dec. 31 to The Cheder, which services Phoenix Hebrew Academy and Tucson Hebrew Academy, have not yet been totaled. In mid-December he had reported approximately $50,000 in donations to date.
Taxpayers can donate up to $625 per tax year to the tuition organizations, in lieu of paying the same amount in Arizona state tax. Each organization then provides tuition scholarships to students wanting to attend a Jewish day school that participates in a qualified funding organization.
Families applying for scholarships at Phoenix Preparatory High School or Phoenix Hebrew Academy apply directly to the schools.
In the past, families applied for the Jewish Community Day School Scholarship Fund through the federation.
This year an outside source will determine financial need, said Zeidman. He said each participating school is becoming a member of the Education Testing Service in Princeton, N.J. Families will get ETS applications from the school they wish their children to attend. They will then mail the completed forms directly to ETS, along with a $17 processing fee.
ETS uses its own guidelines to determine financial need and sends a summary report to the school. The scholarship fund committee will evaluate ETS's recommendations, plus additional information such as extenuating circumstances, in selecting scholarship recipients and the dollar amount of each scholarship.
"We are asking for a little more input from the schools this year because they're much closer to these families," explained Zeidman. "We're asking for the ETS review because determining financial need is really a complex process ... This will be a fair, more equitable way to proceed."
ETS applications will be available at the participating schools this month.
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