You Can Donate Your Taxes To Jewish Schools In Cincinnati – Here’s Why That Support Matters

Since 2021, Rockwern Academy, Chai Tots Early Childhood Center, and the Cincinnati Hebrew Day School have collectively raised an extra $225,000 for scholarships to help kids attend the Jewish day schools.

But that money hasn’t come from a handful of major gifts, or from a new campaign encouraging donors to give more. 

Instead, the schools are finding support in a relatively new Ohio tax credit: The scholarship donation credit, where people can donate part of their taxes directly to scholarship programs, and as a result, owe less money to the state.

People filing individually can get a maximum credit of $750, while joint filings can donate up to $1,500 for the credit.

“There are people who are like, ‘That sounds amazing…It’s a no-brainer, because I have to pay that money somewhere – I either have to give it to the state of Ohio, or I can give it to a school,’” said Rabbi Laura Baum, head of school at Rockwern. 

“Then there’s a category of people who [think] that sounds too good to be true,” she said. “So we’ve really been trying to educate people that, even though it sounds too good to be true, it is really that easy and that good.”

Rockwern has participated in the tax credit since the 2023 tax season, during which the school raised roughly $40,000. 

But Baum hopes to raise much more this tax season – which runs until April 15 – by joining with the other Cincinnati-area Jewish schools to advertise the credit to the wider Jewish community.

Anyone, regardless of if they’re a parent or not affiliated with a school, can donate and get the credit.

“If every member of the Jewish community in Cincinnati chose to support one of the day schools, it could be game changing for our ability to provide a Jewish education, without it costing donors anything additional,” Baum said.

While the tax credit is a kind of donation, the pipeline is a little different than just donating to the schools. 

Instead, taxpayers have to donate to a registered scholarship granting organization (SGO) and mark the donation for a particular school. Then the SGO will give a receipt to include in a tax return, and will pass on the funding to individual schools.

Both Chai Tots and the CHDS are using Every Child, Every Family as its SGO, while Rockwern is under the umbrella of the Ohio Association of Independent Schools.

Scholarship tax credits are not without controversy, having been pushed by right-wing and school choice activists across the country as a way to fund private schools at the expense of public schools.

But the tax initiative is also an added lifeline for Jewish schools. Some studies show that Jewish day school graduates have a stronger connection to their Jewish identity, and are more likely to be involved in the organized Jewish community, as well as more connected to Israel.

In the wake of the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and the drastic rise in antisemitism across the country, there is also a renewed interest among parents who want to enroll their kids in Jewish day schools.

Still, the affordability of Jewish schools has been an ongoing crisis for years, driving away families and imperiling the future of a large swath of Jewish education. The Ohio scholarship tax credit helps lift that burden.

“We know that a Jewish day school education is very powerful for the student, for their family, and for what it means for the Jewish community, and we never want finances to be a barrier to coming to a school like Rockwern,” Baum said. 

“We have always had financial aid programs and ways of making an education more affordable, but this allows us to do more of that,” she said. “It’s a really exciting opportunity, in addition to all of our other fundraising efforts, for this to really be a different category that doesn’t affect people’s wallets in the same way, but helps the school and the students and families tremendously.”