With rumors swirling regarding promises allegedly made to the haredi parties by former premier Netanyahu, haredi education is once again in the spotlight. Radio 103FM interviewed MK Yaakov Asher of the UTJ party following their announcement that the two factions that make up UTJ will once again run together in national elections.

"The way the story has been portrayed in the media is one big fiction," Asher said. "First of all, the figure of three billion shekels that is being bandied about is totally inflated. According to the law as it stands, since 1985, haredi schools which learn most but not all parts of the core curriculum are entitled to 75 percent of the funding accorded to state schools. This comes out to 17 thousand shekels per child. And in the schools where they learn a much smaller percentage of the core curriculum, they are entitled to 55 percent of the total.

"In practice, however, that 55 percent has dwindled to just 27 percent," Asher stressed. "As an example, I'll give my grandson, who should be getting just over half of 17 thousand shekels to fund his education. Instead, his school receives just 4,639 shekels per student. In the schools where they learn more of the core curriculum, and are entitled to 75 percent funding, they're also receiving much less than the law stipulates -- just 7,500 shekels."

At this point in the interview, Ben Caspit, who was speaking with Asher, tried to cut him off, claiming that none of the listeners understood what he was talking about.

"You're standing here and telling the country that we're a bunch of highway robbers who are uneducated boors and fit for nothing but filling the prisons, accusing us of extorting money that we don't deserve - and this is all lies," Asher retorted. "So what you really want is to continue lying to everyone because you can't be bothered to listen to the truth? If you want to talk to me, you have to produce numbers. I want to reveal the truth and that's what I'm doing.

"And another thing I want to say," he continued. "This is exactly why we have no faith in the system. If the State of Israel promises that each student should get 55 percent of full funding according to the proportion of the core curriculum he learns, and in practice he only receives half that amount, that means that the government wants to hang us out to dry. All Netanyahu is doing is promising to give us what the law states," he stressed.

Caspit then claimed that not learning the full core curriculum left haredim unprepared to enter the job market, adding that he personally had helped "dozens" of haredim who were seeking employment.

"Obviously a student who didn't learn English in school will find it a bit more difficult in the job market, but anyone who really wants to find a job can easily catch up later and will do even better than those students who supposedly know English and managed to pass a matriculation exam," Asher replied.