An official inquiry undertaken by the Center for Research and Information in the Knesset has shown that over a period of many years, the Education Ministry has avoided paying a component of the salaries of educators in the chareidi sector - in institutions "recognized but not officially registered" (mukar she'eino rishmi) which have a collective student population of tens of thousands. Basically these are the chadorim. The report proves that the chareidi community does not get the funding it is entitled to.
This is in effect an additional budgetary cut which has been carefully concealed, enacted through computer calisthenics. As if this were not bad enough, the Ministry only pays a small portion of the salaries of education employees in schools. Even this little bit was only funded partially for the past years while ignoring wage agreements which were supposed to obligate the Education Ministry.
In the wake of an official question in an open forum addressed to the Knesset Committee Chairman of Financial Affairs, Rabbi Moshe Gafni who has taken this issue under his wing, has demanded a comprehensive examination thereof. From this report it is apparent that for dozens of years the calculations have not been updated in which the Education Ministry is obligated to participate in the salaries of educational employees as is called for in wage agreements.
The study undertaken by the Knesset Center for Research and Information, an independent research arm of the Knesset, has proven that the Ministry does not provide the budgets for vital topics regarding wages of educational employees so that, for example, a teacher who is the mother of children aged up to 14 is eligible for a special increment of ten percent of her salary, but the Ministry has not recognized this at all in effect. Similarly, a teacher who reaches the age of fifty is eligible for a wage supplement which has also not been honored, as opposed to its being in effect in all other educational institutions.
