Aid need on rise at religious schools

More families feel pinch of the recession

About one-third of 332 students at Gann Academy in Waltham get financial aid, says Rabbi Marc Baker, head of the school. (Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe)

Religious day schools in Greater Boston, some of which had been enjoying strong growth in recent years, are reporting increased requests for financial aid from families hurt by the recession and concerns about potential drops in enrollment.

The area's Jewish community last week became the first to act collectively, announcing $2 million from a national foundation to provide emergency scholarship aid to families whose children attend one of the area's 14 Jewish day schools or many Jewish summer camps and preschools.

The major source of financial aid for Catholic school students, the Catholic Schools Foundation, says its fund-raising is down by 15 percent, while requests for emergency aid from families in which a parent has lost a job or had work hours cut are spiking.

The situation facing religious schools is similar to that facing nonreligious private schools and colleges, all of which are far more expensive than the public alternatives.

"Every school and camp are reporting significant increases in the numbers of students and campers and preschool families needing scholarships," said Barry Shrage, the president of Combined Jewish Philanthropies. "We have hit a massive recession that looks like it's going to hit all segments of the community, from the poorest, who are already on scholarship, to the people in the middle class and upper-middle class, who never needed help before but now are fully unemployed."

Boston's Jewish community is among five in the nation sharing an $11 million grant from the San Francisco-based Jim Joseph Foundation, which is seeking to prevent a recession-related drop in enrollment at Jewish day schools and summer camps.

"Family by family, people are sharing concerns during the admissions process, or calling about a changed financial situation," said Rabbi Marc Baker, the head of Gann Academy, a 332-student Jewish high school in Waltham, where yearly tuition is $26,000 and about one-third of students receive financial aid. Baker said the school is already budgeting for an increase in scholarships next year.

At the Rashi School, in Newton, fund-raisers are going back to donors, asking for additional help to provide scholarships to families hurt by the economic downturn. Kindergarten enrollment is rising - administrators believe that is in part due to reduced confidence in the Newton schools after voters there defeated a property tax measure - but so are requests for help.

"We're definitely seeing an increased need, even among existing families who haven't required aid before," said Adrienne Frechter, admissions director at Rashi, which has 300 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Tuition there runs between $18,000 and $22,000 annually, and about a third of the students receive financial aid.

Arnold Zar-Kessler, the head of school at Solomon Schechter Day School, which has 476 students in kindergarten through eighth grade and an average yearly tuition of $19,000, said his school is seeking to increase its funds for financial aid by 15 to 20 percent next year. And Jane Taubenfeld Cohen, the head of school at the 240-student South Area Solomon Schechter Day School in Norwood, said administrators there are visiting some family homes, urging people to apply for financial aid rather than withdraw students; she said raising financial aid has become such a priority that when two staffers married one another this year they decided to ask their wedding guests to donate to the school's scholarship fund.

The Catholic school system, with 46,000 students in 130 schools in the Archdiocese of Boston, is larger and generally less expensive than the Jewish day school network. Average Catholic elementary school tuition is $3,500 annually, but many of the school families, particularly in urban areas, are low income.

"Each week our principals get phone calls about somebody who lost a job," said Mary Grassa O'Neill, the superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Boston. "The good news is we don't hear panic from any quarter - people are enrolling, and it's looking good. But we don't really know. . ."

The Catholic Schools Foundation, which provides scholarships to students at Catholic elementary schools in Boston, Brockton, Lawrence, and Lowell, says corporate giving is particularly hard hit this year.

"Some companies that were our supporters have literally gone away," said Michael Reardon, the executive director of the foundation, which last year raised $9 million to support 5,100 students at 98 schools.

"But the other piece to this is that many of these families are hard-working families that believe in the value of Catholic education, so they'll find a way to make it work - it will just be a lot harder."

Mark Davis, the head of school at the Lexington Christian Academy, said his institution, with 332 students in grades six through 12, has so far not seen a major impact from the economy, but other predominantly Protestant schools around the nation are clearly suffering.

"We have budgeted more for financial aid for families who may be applying, and I do sense that we may have some families who need financial aid who did not in the past," said Davis, whose school has a tuition of about $20,000 for high school students, and where about 30 percent receive financial aid.

"It's a very different story on the national level - schools in Michigan have been hit much harder, and I know some schools in Washington state that are extending tuition forgiveness - writing off tuition that parents can't pay as bad debt," said Davis, also the vice president of Christian Schools International. "Our anticipation at the national level is that faith-based schools will see an overall loss in enrollment."

At the Al-Hamra Academy, a 150-student Muslim day school in Shrewsbury, principal Sadia Khan said administrators are concerned about the effect of the economy but have not yet seen a direct impact. The school's tuition is $6,000. She expects it would be next month before she has a sense of how job losses and other economic woes are affecting the school's families.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.