[Avodah] Tuition Breaks and Tzedaka

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

>From Tvunah, a web site maintained by talmidim of R' Asher Weiss
<https://en.tvunah.org/2017/09/15/tuition-breaks-tzedaka/>:

   Question:
   If one send his children to a yeshiva where they charge a very high
   tuition for attending but are are very lenient with breaks to those
   who need if one takes a tuition brake is it permitted for him to give
   any charity to other places because if charity is only given on net
   profit technically he has no net profit if he cant afford the full
   tuition bill and therefore perhaps he must give any charity to the
   yeshivah to help pay off the balance that he didn't pay in tuition.

   Answer:
   He may still give tzedaka, but it should only be minimal, not like
   an average person, and certainly not Maaser.

If RAW would say this WRT Americans on scholarship and if it were
generally followed (Kant's Categorical Imperative -- the moral choice
is what would work best if everyone did it), a lot more money would go
to schools and a lot less to poor people, the chevrah qadishah, biqur
cholim, miqvah, shuls...

I think that year one, these other social structures would suffer. One or
two might collapse or even get close to it. In year 3 or 4, the published
tuition might go down, as more parents share more of the burden. And
then maybe the infrastrucure would recover. Since none of this impacts
the gevir money, "just" the many smaller donations from 1/3 - 1/2 of
the rest of the community.

Which raises the obvious question, back on-topic for Avodah: Since
published tuition is more money than my own kid costs, is that
differential in money owed the school in the manner RAW described --
because that's what the market price is? Or is the differential maaser
money that can therefore be given to other urgent causes?

I know both of the local day schools quote posqim who say one may use
maaser money to pay the differential. I am wondering if promoting that
pesaq might not backfire among parents who are currently paying part
of the differential based on the above reasoning.

(I looked for the Hebrew original, because an English adaptation with
no sources if often based on a teshuvah that had them. But I couldn't
find it. If someone who knows Modern Ivrit better than I is willing to
help, I would appreciate it.)

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A person lives with himself for seventy years,
micha at aishdas.org        and after it is all over, he still does not
http://www.aishdas.org   know himself.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter