bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod - Synod Board...":
Jewish college succeeds where LCMS's Concordia-Ann Arbor fails, despite the Lutheran population of Michigan being many times the size of the Jewish population.
Ann Arbor is only 10 miles west of the Detroit metropolitan area where the Jewish college is located.
Ann Arbor recently had to merge with Concordia-Mequon, which is now a dual campus.
The Jewish college started from scratch in 2006, and in 2010 it already had $3 million in assets and a 40-acre campus. It's main source of revenue is federal Pell Grants! Meanwhile, Concordia-Ann Arbor started earlier, and was subsidized by the synod, got the same Pell Grants, and yet failed.
I suppose like most colleges, Ann Arbor gave full and half scholarships to sons and daughters of wealthy families based on academic performance, and charged poorer students full price, also based on academic performance. Every school does it and they all wonder why schools have financial challenges. Surprise! Now poorer Americans now have $1+ trillion in student loan debt. As with most things in America, means testing is anathema, and this leads to catestrophic systemic problems when the class of the poor expands and can't pay their mortgage, need food stamps, qualify for Medicaid, etc. Also, it lead to the growing class wealth divide as measured by the GINI Index. If there is a student loan fix, I hope Congress demands that colleges stop letting the rich students attend free while charging the poorer students full price.
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Chabad College in Michigan Gets Building Go-Ahead: Fueled by Federal Funding, 16,0000 Square Feet, but Just 3 Degrees
http://forward.com/articles/170106/chabad-college-in-michigan-gets-building-go-ahead/
For many years, MJI catered mainly to a small number of part-time students studying towards vocational degrees in business and computers. However, as the Forward revealed last fall, the college and its finances have swelled rapidly as it transitioned to offer courses in Judaic Studies and particularly as it expanded online.
Its student body has grown from about 200 students in 2004 to about 2,000 students today. During the past five years, MJI students collected almost $25 million in federal Pell grants designed for low-income students.
Between 2006 and 2010, MJI’s net income increased from $89,000 to $850,000. It ended 2010 with almost $3 million in assets.
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