Under the banner of "A New Era," Education Minister Limor Livnat and Education Ministry Director-General Ronit Tirosh held a press conference this afternoon in which they announced major changes in funding for elementary schools. The determining factor will no longer be the number of classes, but rather the number of students in a school and their socio-economic status. In addition, in accordance with the Shoshani Committee recommendations for equality in education, the Education Ministry will demand that every school teach a minimum number of hours of civics, math, English, Judaism, and Hebrew. Schools that do not "fall in line," beginning in the school year of 5764 (2003-2004), will not receive the full funding.
The "equality" clause most greatly affects the hareidi system, of course, and some hareidi spokesmen had strong criticism of Livnat. When the new program was first being considered, Deputy Education Minister Avraham Ravitz (United Torah Judaism), speaking for the hareidi "independent education" system, had this to say:
"We are, as our name implies, independent, and not part of the public school system... Civics is taught to our students in their mussar and hashkafah [ethics and Torah philosophy] classes. I don't know how our teachers do it, but in general our students know how elections work and what a government is better than other kids. In any event, we will not teach that democracy is above everything else. We are in favor of democracy as a system, but it's not above Torah, for instance..."
The "equality" clause most greatly affects the hareidi system, of course, and some hareidi spokesmen had strong criticism of Livnat. When the new program was first being considered, Deputy Education Minister Avraham Ravitz (United Torah Judaism), speaking for the hareidi "independent education" system, had this to say:
"We are, as our name implies, independent, and not part of the public school system... Civics is taught to our students in their mussar and hashkafah [ethics and Torah philosophy] classes. I don't know how our teachers do it, but in general our students know how elections work and what a government is better than other kids. In any event, we will not teach that democracy is above everything else. We are in favor of democracy as a system, but it's not above Torah, for instance..."