MK Moshe Gafne, who chairs the Knesset Finance Committee, on Wednesday released a harsh letter to Education Minister Rafi Peretz regarding chareidi special ed children attending recognized unofficial institutions that receive state funding.

In his letter, in which he copied Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, Gafne explains that during a Finance Committee meeting including the members of all the parties, it was stated unanimously that funding for special education for children of all ages must be budgeted from a moral and legal perspective, as the law demands funding for education for all children.

“In the interim” states Gafne, “It has become clear that the lack of funding in general, and for the special ed children and for children with allergies, with the latter having increased sharply, well beyond the percentage of population growth”.

Gafne explains that threats of strikes and other factors have compelled the Education Ministry to take funding from its budget to provide special education funding until 2020, but contrary to the law, this does not include the chareidi institutions that are unofficial, yet recognized by the state and funded in part. The Education Ministry is in violation of the law according to Gafne and these children suffer “because the ministry does not view them as their children”.

Gafne calls on Education Minister Rafi Peretz to view the children as “your children” and “take into account the broad ramifications…that these children are discriminated against and do not receive the proper education”.

Gafne in his letter ads, “After no supplementary budgetary response for 2019 was found, and after consulting with the Treasury and Knesset Education Committee chairman, it was decided to fund the move by suspending the Chanukah vacation subsidy program. The Chanukah vacation program will be operated by the ministry, but the budgetary source for the issue will be brought to the government for discussion immediately following elections. With this in mind, the ministry will allocate budgets to benefit special education and children with life-threatening allergies immediately, so that schools can be optimally prepared”.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)