I’m an orthodox Jewish parent. The thought of sending my sweet, innocent, impressionable, bundles of joy to a public school makes my hair stand on end. But I would totally do it, if everyone else did. See here’s how it works. If you’re the only person in your community sending your kid to a public school instead of a Jewish day school than you are clearly a monster who doesn’t care about your children. But if everyone in the community does it, than hey, that’s cool. So, let’s do exactly that.

And the model has already been proven. There is a public school in Monroe NY that is 100% Jewish, not just orthodox, chassidish. And not just chassidish, Satmar! Imagine if ALL the orthodox Jews in Monsey, or Teaneck, or Kew Garden Hills, or Flatbush, or any other large Jewish community across America suddenly woke up one morning and united to send all of their kids to public school. What would happen?

Well since I’m in favor of it I’ll start of with the negatives. Unlike the Satmar example which was the result of some crazy legal/constitutional battles, the public schools would not be guaranteed to be 100% Jewish. And I get that this would be a deal breaker for some people. I have my thoughts on why this shouldn’t be a problem, but let’s just leave this one in the negative column.

Problem #2, limudei kodesh. This is my favorite one, because first of all with free education parents will have income freed up to hire the best m'chanchim to tutor their kids after school one-on-one or in small groups. Furthermore research shows that learning in the afternoon is retained better for younger students than in the morning. This also solves the question of what to do about out of work m'chanchim - they’ll get paid more to be tutors. P.S. that’s actually how the Jewish education system used to work, just ask Dr. Sokolow.

#3 Missing days for Yom Tov. First off let me stress that the solution I’m proposing will not be viable for a tiny community like (picking out of a hat) Dayton Ohio. But for the larger ones, there are already considerations for many yamim tovim, where school is either closed or it is an excused absence. Barring that, kids will just (shudder) miss school. Yes it will be harder on them, they’ll have to make up the work, etc. But I think it would be a huge lesson in m'siras nefesh and a great “teachable moment”. Instead we train kids to think that everything in the world accommodates their Judaism. Ha'levai. B'yemot ha'Moshiach I’m sure that will be so, but sometimes we forget, we’re in galus.

To my mind that is the sum total of the problems, am I missing some? While you think about that let’s talk about the benefits.

Day school tuition crisis = solved. No more will the moniker ‘Jewish birth control’ haunt our community. Which leads me to… What are we gonna do with all that money? Good things! Forgetting about how much it would effect most orthodox people’s lives not to have to shell out 30, 50, or even $100,000 in tuition; think of what the wealthy will be able to do. Now they could reallocate the money that used to go to support sub-par schools (more on that later) and channel it into other parts of the community! And speaking of sub-par schools, I have seen and attended too many schools who are incredibly far behind public schools in their secular education. Imagine our kids getting a better education for $0 This will be a boon to special education kids and their parents. Imagine the torment of a special needs parent who realizes she has to send her kid to a goyish public school so that kid can get the services needed. Now imagine the joy of that same parent who can choose instead to send to a mainly orthodox Jewish public school. That thought alone brings tears to my eyes. Extra curriculars! Unless you send your kid to Yeshiva of Flatbush or some other huge fancy school your idea of extra curriculars are 'those things I wish I could afford to send my kid to at like 7 or 8pm because they don’t get home till 5’. Meet other Jews who are not 100% like you! I know this might sound scary to some, but if everyone is sending to the same school that might mean that orthodox Jews of all hues and stripes will be in school together. I think that would be awesome (I’m biased, I came from a small town community where the kollel families sent to the same day school that far left, I’m talking women in pants not covering their hair, folks did). For places like East Ramapo specifically; this fixes the formula problem. Instead of the state allotting funds for 9,000 students they will have to do so for 30,000.

Problem solved. Chillul Hashem avoided.

There’s only one thing missing. Coordination.