What does "full tuition mean"

Orchid

Mon, Nov 16 2015, 8:03 pm

I kind of agree with OP.

However you come up with the magic number that is the actual cost of educating her child, they always charge extra to cover other people's scholarship, hence "full tuition" includes mandatory tzedakah. Which many people have a problem with, not just OP.

Put another way, if you KNEW somehow (ie, the executive director told you) that the true cost is $9,000 and yet they charge $11,500 to cover other people's not paying full tuition, and you are greatly struggling to make ends meet, should you be obligated to pay the full 11.5k which includes mandatory tzedakah? Should you wipe out your savings and have not once single cent for a rainy day or your retirement so that you can pay this extra mandatory tzedakah?

These are not clear-cut issues. I may have heard once (many years ago) that the portion of tuition you pay that is above the school's actual cost of educating your kid is tzeddakah- and therefore, presumably, is subject to the same halachos of any other tzeddakah (such as doing some measure of savings first so you don't come to need those very same tzeddakah services).

amother

Rose

Mon, Nov 16 2015, 8:04 pm

OP, that's like buying a product on sale for 20% off, finding out that it was sold at the seller's cost price, and then walking around saying you bought the product at full price.

Sorry, but that's just not accurate.

If you cannot make the full payment amount and the school agrees to take less then that's a great arrangement. But you can't say you're paying full tuition. You can say you received a very small break. That would be accurate.

Orchid

Mon, Nov 16 2015, 8:06 pm

SRS wrote:

If you want to find out about the school's assumptions, pull their 990 and then you can make actual calculations.

Not necessarily. A school below college age that is affiliated with a "church" is not required to file a 990.

SRS

Tue, Nov 17 2015, 5:02 pm

Orchid wrote:

Not necessarily. A school below college age that is affiliated with a "church" is not required to file a 990.

In which case one would need to ask for the financials.