A win-win arrangement for parents and schools is in danger of falling apart, for lack of funds. The Cultural Centers Company has been running a program wherein parents can borrow their child's required schoolbooks for the duration of the school year, at a nominal cost of 250 shekels - instead of having to purchase them for up to three or four times that amount. However, the recent cuts in the Education Ministry's budget may signal the end of the arrangement, causing half a million students to have to purchase their own books. Knesset Education Committee Chairman Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party) said that he "would not take it lying down," as this is a "social program of the first degree."
The arrangement, about ten years old, provides books for about 1,300 schools countrywide, and costs some 5 million shekels annually. In the wake of the 20-million shekel education budget cut, highly-placed Culture Center Company figures plan to recommend that the book-loan program be dropped. "Our first priority is to run our 150 cultural centers," they say. Parent groups claim, however, that some 350,000 households would be affected by the cancellation - "mostly the weaker classes, as usual."
The arrangement, about ten years old, provides books for about 1,300 schools countrywide, and costs some 5 million shekels annually. In the wake of the 20-million shekel education budget cut, highly-placed Culture Center Company figures plan to recommend that the book-loan program be dropped. "Our first priority is to run our 150 cultural centers," they say. Parent groups claim, however, that some 350,000 households would be affected by the cancellation - "mostly the weaker classes, as usual."