Former Education Minister (Yesh Atid) Shai Piron was attacked by the chareidi tzibur for funding summer camp programs for public school students while excluding the chareidi tzibur. Piron defended himself by explaining it was not a decision against chareidim, but simply a program for public schoolers so chareidim were not eligible.
When Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) took over for Piron, he received as part of successful coalition talks a 600 million shekel budgetary increase. Bennett is considering using some of this money to extend the summer program to include third graders in addition to first and second graders.
On Tuesday, 8 Sivan, Knesset Education Committee Chairman (Shas) Yaakov Margi sent a letter to Bennett asking him to end the “discrimination against chareidi children” and fund summer camp programs for this sector too. Deputy Minister of Education (Yahadut Hatorah) Meir Porush told the press that he is following this matter with tenacious efforts, hoping to get the funding for the chareidi summer programs. He explains that he selected the position for he views it as a shlichus.
He stated the injustice regarding the summer programs “Shouts to the heavens”, telling the public that one of the clauses in his party’s coalition agreement is that there must be funding for chareidi children for similar summer programs. He proudly announced that this is backed by the written coalition agreement, crediting his party for bringing an end to the discriminatory practice.
Porush adds that the Kulanu party is a coalition member and signed on the agreements. Therefore he has already contacted Finance Minister (Kulanu) Moshe Kahlon regarding funding for the chareidi summer programs for first, second and third graders.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
It might possibly be
“Kol Ha’moseph m’garei’a ”
It may appear they’re getting a little too much
My son went to the “camp” last year at his D.L. school. The “camp” teaches math, science, and English. Chareidim want the money without any strings attached. In my day we called that “chutzpah”.
#2 You weren’t happy that your son got English lessons…what’s the problem?
What if it was the other way around?
What if the majority was chareidim and they decided the program for the camp?
Would you call out “chutzpah” so fast if other parents complained?
I think that chareidim should forgo all the extras that the general tzibur receives because it just raises the level at which people become accustomed to and one never knows when one will be hit by a lower standard of living.
Get by with as little as possible from the government.
In the case of summer camps, just have neighborhood girls supervise the children in the park.
That’s what we did when I was a younger olah, who needs all these programs?
Secular kids receive all sorts of perks, “enrichment” programs, line items in the state budget that chareidi kids do not get. Most of the chareidi education budget has to be re-negotiated each year for each annual budget. The costs for secular “education” are automatically part of the larger, annual budget. So, it always appears like the chareidi MKs are cajoling, begging, or “blackmailing” the state to receive funding that Arab and Druze kids get automatically without asking. So, please enlighten us About Time, what “too much” “they” (“we?”) are getting. And I guess the Happy Immigrant feels that running a summer camp according to the will of the children’s parents is chutzpah. So, you send your child to a camp with strings; some people prefer a camp without strings.
With commenters like these, who needs Lapid, Piron, etc.?