Help our Jewish Day Schools in Maryland

Posted on March 11th, 2010 by JewishByte

JewishByte Baltimore - You can help offset the cost of Jewish day school tuition. This is a piece of legislation which needs our support and our senators and legislators need to hear that there is broad support across the Jewish community. Please read the two letters below to see how this can be accomplished with our help. The first letter is from Daniel Ely the Executive Director of YGW which is a forward to the second letter that originates from the Orthodox Union.

Dear Friends,

Please read the following Action Alert from the OU, who has been very involved in the BOAST MD Tax Credit issue. This is a tremendous opportunity to offset the rising cost of Jewish day school tuition that may not come our way again. This can directly impact YOUR tuition in the future, and action is required immediately. Please forward to others as well. The money you save will be your own.

In addition to this link (CLICK HERE), you can also use the following web site to identify your specific MD State Senators if you do not know your district number. Just go to http://www.congress.org/ and put your zip code in the “Get Involved” search bar in the top center of the page. Certainly contact Senators from your district, and others depending on your time availability.

Daniel Ely

Executive Director

Yeshiva of Greater Washington

Dear Friends,

Help for Jewish Day School tuition could be on the way. But we need you to act NOW!

Take Action Now to Urge Your Senator to Vote YES for Scholarship-Building Tax Credit

The BOAST Maryland Tax Credit, which could potentially generate thousands of dollars in scholarship money for private school students, passed the Maryland Senate Budget and Taxation Committee last week by a vote of 10 to 5. The Orthodox Union was on hand in Annapolis to advocate for BOAST passage last week and submitted testimony in support of the tax credit. The tax credit will come before the full Senate in the next several days and YOUR help is needed to push it to passage.

In other states, these programs have raised millions of dollars for yeshivas and day schools: In Rhode Island, with under 100 students, they’ve raised over $700,000 in two years. Over $12 million in scholarships has been distributed in Pennsylvania to almost 5,000 students. In Arizona, scholarships totaling nearly $9 million were awarded to private school students.

BOAST would grant businesses a state income tax credit in exchange for their donations to scholarship programs for nonpublic school students or enrichment programs for public school students. Donations can also be used to provide continuing education grants to public and nonpublic school teachers.

Remember, the 127,000 students in Maryland’s nonpublic schools save state taxpayers more than $1.5 billion annually in public school costs.

Call your state senator now and urge them to vote YES on BOAST.

Click here to find the name of your senator.

Howie Beigelman

Deputy Director, Public Policy

Orthodox Union (Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America)