Funding education

Tuition organization gives nearly $1 million to Jewish students

BETH OLSON
Staff Writer

The Jewish Community Day School Scholarship Fund allocated $958,753 to 221 students in Jewish day schools and kindergartens for the 2003-2004 school year, a 10.5 increase from last year.

The funds were generated from $1,043,679 in donations to the nonprofit 501(c)3 scholarship tuition organization (STO) during 2002. The STO retains 10 percent of funds collected for administrative and marketing costs.

Last year, $856,396 was distributed to 187 students for the 2002-2003 school year.

The STO is administered by the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix and serves seven participating schools: Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School, The King David School, Pardes Jewish Day School, Phoenix Hebrew Academy, Tri-City Jewish Community Center Day School, Beth El Kindergarten and Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center Kindergarten.

Although some school administrators were disappointed with this year's scholarship awards, parents expressed gratitude to the scholarship committee.

Three of Mila McIntyre's four children were recipients of STO scholarships this year. The three attend King David. McIntryre also has a 3-year-old who attends the Beth El Center for Early Childhood Education.

A Jewish education is particularly important to McIntyre, who grew up in Russia and didn't have the opportunity to obtain a Jewish education.

"I'm very grateful to the scholarship committee. It's amazing because I would never be able to give (my children) a Jewish education if it wasn't for (the scholarship)," she said.

McIntyre and her husband are both teachers. She said they couldn't afford to send their children to day school without help from both the STO and King David.

"I'm just as educated as anyone, (but) I just can't pay that much," she explained.

Another parent, who asked not to be identified, has two children in Jewish day schools - one at the academy and one at the high school. He said he would also be unable to send his children to day school without the assistance of the STO, and that it's very important to the family for the children to attend.

"My family obviously feels strongly about Jewish education (and) learning Hebrew, and my children are very much aware of their heritage," he said. "Although it's not always comfortable asking for assistance and it's not an easy process, they certainly try to make it painless."

Esther Feuerberg, King David head of school, says the scholarship money has enabled new families to attend Jewish day school.

"Individuals who might otherwise shy away (from enrolling in day school) because they simply think they cannot afford it, are now given the opportunity to have some financial intervention that makes it affordable. ... Part of the growth that (our) school is experiencing is a reflection of the funds that were raised by the STO."

While Feuerberg said she is grateful for the scholarship funds, King David received less scholarship money than last year and that meant a difference of nearly two dozen potential students.

"The generosity of the community is phenomenal (but) the response can be better. The general com-munity is not aware as they need to be about what the tax money can do for the schools and how helpful it is," Feuerberg said.

Rabbi David Rebibo, dean of the academy, said the scholarships were a "tremendous help."

This is the first year the academy took part in the scholarship fund along with the other schools in the Valley. Previously, the academy had its own STO in association with the Tucson Hebrew Academy, called the Cheder.

For the 2002-2003 school year, the academy received $90,000 in scholarships from the Cheder. This year, the academy received $143,500 from the Jewish Community Day School Scholarship Fund - a number that Rebibo charged is not in line with the other day schools (see chart below).

Rebibo said that he feels the scholarships were awarded based on what schools the applicants were attending and not on the basis of family need.

"In a sense, we didn't adhere to the spirit and intent of the law, which was not trying to assist the schools but trying to assist the students who are (in) need and giving them the option to go where they want," he said.

Rebibo said that 84 students from the academy applied for scholarships. The STO reported that 29 academy students were given scholarships. Rebibo said he believes the distribution to be unfair, in that the academy students are more needy than those in other schools.

"When the Jewish community as a whole contributed to this fund, their idea was that all the children should be treated at least equal, but here we have discrimination against the neediest of them all and that's a problem," he said.

Heath Blumstein, mar-keting and campaign co-ordinator for the STO, said that while the fund was able to award more scholarship money this year than last, it still wasn't enough to meet the demand.

"We had $1.8 million in requests and we had $960,000 to give out. Had we raised $2 million instead of $1 million, we wouldn't have this problem," he said.

Blumstein said the scholarship committee makes decisions about applicants using a variety of factors, including multiple children in day school, changes in family or financial situations, and whether the family is new to Jewish day school.

The STO was created to take advantage of an Arizona tax credit that allows taxpayers to donate up to $625 per year to tuition organizations in lieu of paying the same amount in state income tax.

Since its inception in 1999, the STO has awarded $2.72 million in scholarships to Jewish day school students.

Contact the writer at beth_olson@jewishaz.com.

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