MKs Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), Uri Maklev (UTJ) and Ya'akov Margi (Shas) submitted a proposed bill that would undo a law that was passed by former Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and former Education Minister Shai Piron (Yesh Atid).
By undoing the law, they intend to remove the criteria put in place for haredi schools to receive funding from the government.
The current law states that schools that are recognized by the state but are run on their own school system can receive funding from the government if they meet certain educational criteria, among them teaching math, English, and science. Another criteria that must be met is that there be no discrimination in terms of accepting students whether it be from Ashkenazic or Sephardic backgrounds.
The proposed bill hopes to do away with both of these criteria that were set up by the previous government for all such schools, which includes the haredi school system.
According to a report on Army Radio, the haredi parties are attempting to do away with all of the reforms that were made by the previous government regarding the subsidies of the haredi school system.
According to the new proposal, which is being brought up in the ministerial committee, the haredi parties would like to place the decision in the hands of the Education Minister to determine which school systems receive the subsidy, without the use of these criteria.
Former Education Minister Shai Piron responded to the proposed bill and said it "saddens me not just because of ideological reasons, but due to the humiliation that students will have to go through time and again when they are rejected from schools due to their identity. This is a bad vote nor because of arguments or opinions, but because we want to care for each and every student as they are.”
MK Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid) told Army Radio that “we have a promise from the Prime Minister that this law will not be changed. I call on the members of the coalition government not to give in on issues of equal social responsibility regarding military service, and on the issue of learning basic studies. There is a very big difference between regular coalition agreements and disrupting coalition agreements of this magnitude.”