With summer upon us the matter of school registration for next year is already in the news, this time in Telshe Stone (Kiryas Yearim). Parents of tens of students have been informed their children will not be entering schools and cheider in the community in the coming school year. They received notification from local authorities, explaining they will have to pay out of pocket for transportation to Jerusalem since no alternatives remain available.

The Kikar News report adds that most of these students, those who were not accepted to schools in the community, are from the generation of the founders of the community, not residents of the new neighborhood that was built years ago. Today, the fathers in most of these homes are avreichim in kollel.

It has been a number of years since the community’s schools have been unwilling to accept children from homes in which the current regulations are not met despite the fact the homes are chareidi by definition. Since the new trend began, municipality head Avraham Rosenthal still offered these families to cover transportation costs to Yerushalayim, but this too has changed for today, parents have been informed they must also undertake the finances involved in their children getting to and from school outside the community.

The report speaks with “Aleph”, a resident of the community wishing to remain anonymous, explaining his two children were not accepted to a local kindergarten despite the reality the funding for those kindergartens comes from the Ministry of Education. After applying pressure, the dad explains, his children were accepted but only until first grade. He explains that now, despite the fact he wants his children to continue in the community they are compelled to travel back and forth to and from Jerusalem.

The city’s legal counsel explains that these parents are sending their children to schools which are ‘recognized but unofficial’, meaning yeshivos outside of the public system but nevertheless enjoy limited state funding. As a result, explains the legal expert, Telshe Stone cannot fund their transportation since the schools are not state schools.

Another parent promises he will fight and not permit R’ Rosenthal to ‘get away with this”. He explains that in addition to the other factors, the children will have to be out of the house by 7:00AM make it through traffic to a Jerusalem school on time.

Another parent points out that beginning three years ago, a new regulation was issued clearly stating a municipality must fund transportation costs for children who were rejected because they are not suited to a local school. A protest is planned by many of these parents outside Telshe Stone City Hall, to take place on Thursday, 8 Tammuz.

When asked to comment, city officials explain that paying for transportation in the past was “above and beyond” their requirement since the law only required they pay a portion of the costs. However, with a growing number of students traveling to Jerusalem for school the cost and burden on the local government is too great to continue funding more than the minimum required by law, the amount needed to cover public buses but not private transportation.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)