Rabbinical Students Can Now Get State Financial Aid
As students get ready to go back to college later this month, men studying become rabbis at private undergraduate yeshivas can now qualify for aid under New York’s Tuition Assistance Program, or TAP.
Orthodox Jews had been lobbying for the change for years. David Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, said it was a matter of fairness.
“The Federal Pell grant program has been available to students attending rabbinical colleges,” he noted. “It was ironic, to put it mildly, that New York state — which has the largest single concentration of rabbinic colleges and Orthodox Jewish families, or Jewish families — with people pursuing careers in the rabbinate, that the state would not allow that which the federal government does allow,” Zwiebel said.
The TAP awards are worth up to $5,000 for students attending undergraduate universities and colleges. The yeshivas attended by rabbinical students are not regular undergraduate institutions, which was why a change in state law was necessary for these students to qualify. There are estimates that giving them TAP will cost New York state up to $18 million a year, because there are several thousand students.
The change in law, and questions about it, were reported this summer by the Web site InvestigateNY.org. Though the legislation was written to benefit theological students in general, it primarily affects those studying to become Orthodox rabbis. Critics have complained about giving state funds to students attending strictly religious schools that are not regular, accredited colleges. They note that at the same time, the state is also cutting funding to the CUNY and SUNY system.
Assemblywoman Deborah Glick of Manhattan said instead of singling out men attending strictly religious schools, the state should have raised the $80,000 family income cutoff to allow more students, overall, to qualify for TAP financial aid.
“This expansion, which is somewhere between $12 million and $18 million, is not insignificant,” she said, “and I think it is wholly inappropriate for us to be making that change now.”
Glick says she voted for the change last spring because it was part of the bigger budget deal.
Meanwhile, the issue isn’t exactly on the radar for students attending regular state colleges. Ari Saati, a junior at SUNY Oneonta and director of communications for the SUNY student assembly, said “If it means that New York residents are getting education, it’s a good thing.”
Saati said the student assembly has been much more focused on fighting for legislation allowing SUNY and CUNY to make small, fixed tuition increases each year instead of much larger hikes every few years.
ce
please HaShem, just let them learn with yeras shomayim and teachers who have yeras shomayim
CH resident who went to college
Taxpayer funded student aid should go to accredited schools only! If the Yeshivos want to be eligable, let them be accredited. Food stamps, medicade, now tuition aid…all from the government that frum people work so hard to avoid paying taxes to.
parent
Does anyone know if this could be applied to yeshiva boys after mesivta studying outside the US?
Elesoy
This money will NOT find its way to the actual Yeshiva students. As anyone familiar with the system knows, Yeshiva’s match their tuition demands to meet what they know the student in question is able to pay. So ALL of a student’s financial aid is taken by the Yeshiva. This is in contrast to secular colleges, who return all surplus funds to the student for his/her spending.
Therefore, all that this news means is that ULY will now receive $5,000 per year per student from TAP in addition to what they’re already taking from PELL. It’s a bad deal for the students, who receive no future in exchange for this exploitation.
crazy!!
this is garbage and not right
Spiriual gettho
So what kind of schools qualify
To self hating Jew #2 everyone try’s to save on taxes thats why they hire Jewish accountants you idiot
Everyone pays taxes
to number 4
your right.
but, your an underdog. if only you would go public with this information, things would look different. its up to you to put pressure on the executives of the moissad, to go public with expenditures.
since they are using public money, as well as taking crazy tuition, they MUST keep the public informed with their budget. they claim it costs crazy money to run the schools, we say their pocketting it, so lets take it out outside.
the right to know!
to #6
To #6: I’m not talking about accountants. I’m talking about the gigantic cash-only non-tax economy that flourishes here. When I moved here I was told by MANY people, “Pay cash on Kingston ave and there is no sales tax.” Lovely.
lotsa mula flying around 4 free
to what ages,does this tap grant apply to???? and you’re saying that the yeshivas will get 5,000 from each student???? the pel grant is also about that much,so all in all it’s 10 grand..that’s alot of money.so if people r eligible,yeshivas—hear this,lay off,us parents..10,000 is enough to educate a bochur,esp. if they not even use a dormitory. am i making sense or,am i justs nuts??????
Elesoy
To #7:
ULY’s M.M.G. is brilliant – especially at what it is he does. I’m not a lawyer and pursuing justice here is not presently in my best interest. I’m not in the system anymore, and the constituency that currently is have other priorities in mind, as do their parents. The problem is in their mindset – which has been cultivated via full-scale doctrine to support this system – and their mind is not something they’ll change overnight or willingly.
So going public is not viable, and it wouldn’t necessarily win. The only action that can change the system aside for legal action is for the system’s constituency to simply go elsewhere if they can afford it. If I can afford it when the time comes, I’ll send my son elsewhere.
To #9:
A quick google search can answer your question re “TAP eligibility”.
As the article mentions, CUNY and SUNY are undergoing budget cuts. CUNY and SUNY provide tomorrow’s professionals in NYC’s workforce. I don’t know how this misuse of TAP (for a cause that provides NO return for the city) was justified.
sad
You people talking about the Yeshivas, have no idea what you are talking about. You can’t say blanket statements like that. The Yeshivas have a huge responsibilty to pay the Rebbeim on time. the budgets are huge to run the schools, well. A very small amount of people can pay full tuition. Many people pay Nothing! In the best interest of the community the Yeshivas work to get as much funding from the governemnt, as possible. When people assume things to be true and spread lies, its just sad for everyone.
Elesoy
#11,
Nobody here said Yeshivos don’t have bills to pay. #7 said they should be transparent, and I think this would be a great idea. When transparency happens, it will be due to the media. The Chabad websites will either be the vehicles that facilitate the public’s desire for accountability, or the websites themselves will facilitate accountability since (I assume) most organisations wish to please the media for a pleasant public image.
Another problem with your statement is that the Yeshivos continue to return nothing – no future – for the money they take – either from their students directly, or from the government on behalf of their students.
I used to think Yeshivos help students with their character development – to become better people – but I now realize that those that are into character development will develop it regardless, and Yeshiva may or may not IMPEDE their progress with this; and those that are not into character development don’t get into it in Yeshiva either.
Another problem with your statement is that you say that what we say are lies, as if you know something we don’t. Please share.