Institute for University-School Partnership Spearheads New Efficiency Effort Among Jewish Day Schools
In response to a crisis of affordability sweeping through the day school world, a new effort to have schools practice greater efficiency has resulted in savings of tens of millions of dollars for nearly 40 Jewish day schools across the nation.
But while the new 鈥渂enchmarking鈥 process spearheaded by 黑料社 All鈥檚 is expected to free up funds for scholarships, don鈥檛 expect to see dramatic drops in tuition itself.
Rather, the 鈥渇oundational鈥 goal of benchmarking, according to Harry Bloom, the YU School Partnership鈥檚 director of planning and performance improvement, is not tuition reduction per se, but 鈥渕aking schools sustainable while delivering quality education鈥 and making day schools 鈥渁ccessible to the entire Jewish community, including to the middle income families who often are hard pressed and not always well served by current financial aid processes.鈥
While common in the corporate world, benchmarking 鈥 a process in which institutions measure their performance against that of their peers, in order to identify cost-saving and revenue-enhancing opportunities 鈥 is a new arrival in the Jewish day school world, whose myriad financial challenges include a 鈥渢uition crisis.鈥
Eight Bergen County schools have gone through a round of benchmarking under the guidance of YU, and according to Samuel Moed, chairman of Jewish Education for Generations in Northern New Jersey, the process has already saved a combined $2.5 million.
Currently working with 30 additional schools (Orthodox, Conservative and pluralistic) in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago and Cleveland, the YU School Partnership and the Avi Chai Foundation, the project鈥檚 lead funder, hope ultimately to bring benchmarking to at least 200 day schools in 30 communities, including ones in New York City and its suburbs.
Bloom estimates that benchmarking and the strategic planning that follows is on track to achieve combined savings of at least $22.5 million 鈥 approximately 10 percent of operating budgets 鈥 over three years in the five communities in which it is being implemented so far.
