Hasmonean High School in Barnet is the latest school to fall foul of the government’s new statutory code on allocating places for students. Furthermore, those upset with the school’s policies point out that it is not the first time it has been criticised over its admissions.
The Orthodox Jewish secondary school which teaches boys and girls at two separate sites was one of the worst offenders in London identified in a recent report by Children’s Secretary Ed Balls on unlawful admissions practices.
After receiving an official complaint recently, the agency charged with overseeing admissions policies at government funded schools ruled that Hasmonean failed to make places available to “children who are not of the Orthodox Jewish faith”. The adjudicator in charge of the case ordered Hasmonean to change its rules to make it clear that “other children” were also entitled to attend if spaces were available. He ordered the school to make 12 further changes to its admissions rules.
Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said state-funded schools must lose the right to select pupils on the basis of faith.”Minority schools fail cohesion,” he said. “Their very existence reduces the diversity of community schools. The answer is to have no religious discrimination in admissions to any publicly funded schools.
“Nobody is forcing Hasmonean to abide by the admissions code. If they don’t want to follow the code they don’t need to take the public money.”
(Source: Evening Standard)
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7 Responses
Not a problem, give them a competency test in Chumash and they won’t get in.
Although I’m not all the Jewish kids will either, l’daavoneinu.
Anything the government subsidizes, it can regulate. All those here in the U.S., begging for voucher programs should pay attention to this story. Vouchers will help alleviate the cost of tuition in the short term. In the long term, it will raise our taxes and bring in unwanted government interference in the curriculum.
IF you look closely at many orthodox school charters here in the US it says something to the effect that admission is open to anyone of any race, color or creed. The way to avoid actual acceptance is the Hebrew competency and Jewish concepts as part of the admission process.
The goyim have a saying “He who pays the fiddler, gets to call the tune.” While America’s prohibition on direct financial aid to religious (elementary and secondary) schools is a burden, it gives us control over the schools that would be lost if the government took over paying for a substantial part of the budget.
akuperma–you’re still not allowed to discrimate on the basis of religion in the US—if a non-Jew wants to go, a non-Jew has to be allowed in as long as all other entrance rules are met.
turkeyneck, it doesn’t work like that. If a child of any race would apply and meet GOVERNMENT criteria, they would have to accept him/her. A school which is funded by the government cannot stipulate their own standards for acceptance.
#5 – if a religious institution wants to discriminate it can do so (see the “Dale” case involving the right of Boy Scouts to exclude gay men from leadership positions working with boys).
This is a constitutional right of “freedom of association”, and has been upheld by the Supreme Court. Of course, you can’t get paid from public funds if you don’t do things the government’s way. It’s a price one pays for being free(some object when we left the entitlements of Mitsrayim to run off to the midbar – similar issue).