Day school students take advocacy to Harrisburg in Teach PA trip
“I think it was helpful,” Rosenblum said. “It was good to go, and I think it will become a yearly tradition.”
Leah Altein said a recent trip to Harrisburg was a “very cool and educational” experience. Day school students, she said, interacted with staffers and elected officials, and had the chance to see the Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex.
“Being with all the other schools was really nice,” Altein added.
The Yeshiva Girls School seventh grader was part of an April 27 trip, organized by Teach PA, that brought more than 200 Jewish day school students to the state capital for the organization’s annual Advocacy Day.
More than 50 fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade female students from Pittsburgh’s three Jewish day schools — Community Day School, Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh and Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh — traveled together for the event and spent time with local and state officials, including state Sens. Jay Costa and Joe Pittman, state Reps. Dan Frankel and Tim O’Neal and Gov. Josh Shapiro, among others.
In addition to meeting with elected officials and the state’s judiciary, students and parents advocated for “stronger school security funding, greater access to scholarships and expanded educational opportunities,” according to a statement released by Teach PA.
Etti Martel, a chaperone on the trip, said she learned about the opportunity from her daughter, Naomi, an eighth grade Hillel Academy student.
“I went because I feel like every parent deserves to send their child to a day school with confidence and to know that they are safe,” she said. “I want my kids to be safe and supported and to be able to focus on learning.”
Martel said the Hillel girls were excited to spend time on the bus with students from other schools, and that after an initial period of nerves, the students were all confident when speaking with government officials.
“They had a whole conversation with Dan Frankel, which was nice to see,” she said. “They talked about how they feel about their school and what they want from their school.”
Yeshiva’s CEO Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum said the trip was a learning experience for the students.
“It was great for them to see how government works and to meet real people and engage in conversations, and to meet the governor,” he said.
Rosenblum said the trip was important because it allowed students to urge the governor to opt into a newly available federal tax credit. The state is a big supporter of the day schools, he added.
“They provide funding for security and the EITC [Educational Investment Tax Credit, which provides funding to eligible K-12 students]. You need to reach out to them and have a conversation about where their dollars are going and why it’s so important,” he said.
Yeshiva, he said, is dependent on the funding, not just to help with the cost of day school for families, but to provide security at all three schools.
“I think it was helpful,” Rosenblum said. “It was good to go, and I think it will become a yearly tradition.”
Community Day School Head of School Casey Weiss wasn’t on the trip, but she agreed with Rosenblum that the funding is vital to the day schools.
“All three of our schools benefit immensely from the EITC program,” she said.
Because of that funding, she said, CDS was able to give a one-time gift back to some families.
“To get an email that says, ‘As a result of fundraising for this program, your tuition is $4,000 cheaper,’ that’s a game-changer,” she said.
Weiss noted that financial insecurity is a significant issue for families and that Jewish life is expensive — b’nai mitzvahs, synagogue dues, kosher food and summer camp are costly, she said.
“I don’t think that people always think about what it means when we talk about affordability and day schools,” Weiss said.
CDS teacher Lindsey Vendetti said the unity on the bus was as important as the conversations with the various officials.
“I have been with CDS for 19 years and love when we get to combine with the other day schools,” she said.
The students, Vendetti said, enjoyed the ride, which included hanging out and singing, but understood the importance of the meeting, as well.
“I think it really sunk in with the girls when they met with a Jewish woman representative. She was talking to the girls, and it was all about girl power. They buzzed about that on the way back,” she said.
Izzy Rudolph, who has four children at Yeshiva Schools, helped promote the trip among the schools. He said it was a “good day for the students and the schools.”
Rudolph said it was important to push Shapiro to opt in to a new Federal Tax Credit Scholarship Program, which includes up to $3.1 billion in participation for the commonwealth, according to Teach PA.
Also vital, he said, is the educational opportunity of such a trip, showing the influence of the state capital.
“A lot of things that impact our daily lives happen in our capital, Harrisburg. A lot of programs at the state level happen in Harrisburg. We think it’s a small, little capital, but it’s not,” he said.
Jeremy Kazzaz also helped with the trip. When he learned about it from Teach PA Executive Director Jenny Sved, he reached out to Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht, who wasn’t in town on the day of the trip but helped arrange a tour of the Supreme Court chamber — something that is usually off-limits to both the public and members of the legislature.
Wecht also helped arrange meetings with a few judges, who explained to the students the work of the judiciary.
“I feel strongly that visiting capitals and city halls is an important educational activity for students and this should be a more common practice for schools everywhere,” Kazzaz said.
Teach PA is an initiative of the Orthodox Union, which advocates for government policies that support Jewish day schools across Pennsylvania.
Sved said Teach PA’s role in advocating for state dollars is important.
“EITC is about to celebrate its 25th birthday,” she said. “That program has grown tremendously, and we want to make sure it stays strong and gets bigger and better and helps our schools, as much as possible.”
This year, more than 4,300 students from across the state urged lawmakers to increase funding for the Targeted School Safety Security Grants for Nonpublic Schools from $19.4 million to $30 million annually and raise the per-school cap from $75,000 to $125,000. They also voiced support for the EITC and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credits program, urged Shapiro to adopt the new Federal Tax Credit Scholarship program and called for support for a new $1 million STEM teacher initiative.
Sved said that Teach New Jersey and Teach New York have already initiated the STEM program, which brings public school teachers into Jewish day schools, and is covered by the states.
Participation in the Pennsylvania trip was widespread, Sved said.
“We had representation from over 13 different schools,” she said. “That includes executive directors, teachers, parents, students and chaperones.”
One of the more poignant moments came when Shapiro addressed the students and talked about the importance of freedom of religion, practicing your faith and feeling strong and confident, Sved said.
The moment was poignant for Rosenblum, as well.
“He told them that one of the first things William Penn did when he came to the United States was talk about the freedom of religion,” Rosenblum said. “The governor said, ‘I’m not sure William Penn knew that one day there would be a Jewish governor talking to a group of Jewish kids at the capital.’”
For Leah Altein, hearing from the governor was one of the highlights of the trip, but so was traveling with other students from the different day schools. It’s an event she’d be happy to replicate.
“It was a nice experience and I’m happy I had the chance to do it,” she said. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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