The Hiddush organization has petitioned the Supreme Court, demanding to force the Education Minister end full government funding for the "Hahinuch Ha'atzmai" and "Ma'ayan Hahinuch Hatorani" school networks.
Hiddush filed a request with the Supreme Court for an interim injunction as part of its petition against the Education Minister and the haredi education networks.
The organization is asking the court to require the minister to act in accordance with the Attorney General's directives and halt what it alleges is excess funding to the institutions, beginning in the current school year.
According to data included in documents submitted to the court, only 8% of the schools in the networks meet the required standards for teacher certification.
The figures indicate that 79% of the institutions do not have a teacher qualified to teach mathematics, 87% do not have a teacher certified to teach science, and 76% of seventh- and eighth-grade classes do not have a teacher qualified to teach English.
According to Hiddush, responses submitted by the State and the Education Minister revealed flawed calculation methods that increase funding for the networks by tens of percentage points. According to them, the Education Ministry calculated the shortfall in core curriculum hours based on the institutions' total teaching hours - including religious studies - rather than examining the shortfall in each subject and each class separately.
The petition also claims that the Ministry allows institutions that extend their school year by just six weeks to reduce approximately half of the required core curriculum hours. In addition, Hiddush alleges that salary supplements were approved for teachers without academic degrees for teaching core subjects, contrary to Ministry guidelines and a director-general's circular.
Hiddush is therefore asking the court to cap funding for the networks at 75%, similar to recognized but unofficial schools, and to prohibit the hiring of new teachers who do not meet qualification requirements.
The organization is also seeking to move up a hearing currently scheduled for January, arguing that this is necessary to prevent the transfer of funds that may later be impossible to recover for the State treasury.