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NEWS
Transportation Budget Discriminates Against Chareidi
Education System
By Eliezer Rauchberger
The school transportation budget for the general sector
amounts to NIS 900 million ($230 million) — NIS 600
million from the Education Ministry and another NIS 300
million from the local authorities — while the
transportation budget for the chareidi educational system
totals a mere NIS 25 million ($6 million), with Chinuch
Atzmai accounting for NIS 21 million ($5 million), even
though today the chareidi education system comprises 20
percent of Israeli schools.
These disturbing figures that point to shocking
discrimination against the chareidi education system were
brought to light at a meeting of the Knesset Education
Committee on Tuesday.
It was also found that four years ago, when a decision was
reached to set eligibility criteria for all school bussing,
these criteria were in fact only applied to the chareidi
transportation system. In response to a question posed by MK
Rabbi Moshe Gafni, Shoshana Yamin, the Education Ministry
official in charge of transportation, admitted that at the
time she received instructions from a highly ranking figure
to implement the criteria at chareidi institutions alone.
Rabbi Gafni expressed dismay upon hearing the figures and the
details. "This is an unparalleled scandal," he said. "The
chareidi education system is being discriminated against in a
way that has no equal, and yet a Justice Ministry official
[recently] claimed that children in [the chareidi system]
receive more than children in the general education system.
What we've heard here at this committee meeting is chutzpah
of the worst kind. I intend to pass on the minutes of this
meeting to Chinuch Atzmai so that they can file a High Court
discrimination suit against the State, which discriminates
against chareidi education in the worst way possible. How can
[the chareidi] education system receive so little money, yet
obstacles are laid before `the poor man's sheep' by
discontinuing funding for transportation because of these and
other criteria. Now, as they begin to apply them to the
general education system, everyone sees how illogical they
are."
After the meeting MK Gafni told a Yated Ne'eman
reporter he plans to have the Attorney General and the State
Comptroller find out who gave instructions to apply the
criteria to the chareidi education system alone.
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