Decrees 2013 • "Never before in history. Want to close everything"

After the speech of the Finance Minister Yair Lapid at the Center for National Security Studies, the draft of the new budget arrangements was unveiled. Among other things, it shows that the haredi educational institutions funding will be cut in half than today's.

According to the report, the government will add the participation in the GEMS exams and the study of core subjects in haredi educational institutions as a condition for funding. The legislation draft includes cuts of 340 million in the budget transferred to Haredi yeshivas.

At the same time the draft stated that child care subsidy will be given only to families in which both parents work, and that there is extraction of the earning capacity of parents. So, in fact, the one who would gain assistance will be the "working person" only. This condition will apply to all those who wish to obtain exemptions and discounts on property taxes. In addition, priority will be given for affordable housing to households where both spouses work and stand the test of earning capacity.

But not only Haredim suffer a substantive blow by the new law draft. According to the publication, a fifth of the shares of IMI and Rafael would be disrupted and will be issued to the public. Yesterday Minister of Finance stood in front of the comers at the Conference of INSS, and also extensively addressed the changes and reforms that he will be forced to perform to the defense budget.

"The budget hole is an opportunity – it forces us to redefine priorities," Lapid said. "We have no choice. We can not only cruise every year on autopilot. We have no choice but to dive into each section and into every last regulation which was passed late at night when the guard dogs went to sleep," Lapid said.

The Finance Minister's words are very similar to the long statuses he published on his Facebook page: "The Working Man in Israel has not been at the center of Israel's doing for quite a few years. He just pays the bills. If the average payment received by Israel on its natural resources is very low and you all know that I am being gentle now, so we sold the interests of the working man and we need to change it. If tens and hundreds of healthy people are living off allowances fixed for them, so we. If small power groups control our ports, so in the name of the working man - we sold our interest. "

Meanwhile, Housing Minister Uri Ariel criticized the intention to cut 30% of the budgets of yeshivas, as part of the conclusions of the Ministerial Committee on Equal Burden. In speaking to Ma'ariv, he said: "The conduct by which interested factors bring out tendentious headlines in order to harm the haredi public and gain political capital, is not acceptable and is not suitable."

Ariel added: "Alongside our responsibility to encourage the haredi public to go out to the labor market, we should not harm the world of Torah and yeshivas. The amount which is supposed to be deducted from the yeshiva budget, according to calculation, is not final and was not agreed upon in any forum. I will never let near the collapse of the yeshiva world economically and the subject will be discussed in detail and deliberately at the committee. "

Today the Peri Committee for equal burden will hold a further discussion of the future bill, during which Minister Ariel intends to protest the decision to cut the budget of 340 million of haredi yeshivas.

Aspirations of Finance: Haredi women to serve as teachers in secular schools

The Arrangements Law draft presents, along with numbers and charts, explanations of the ideas behind things. Regarding haredi seminaries it is argued that the reality in which everyone learns teaching leads to a situation where there are too many girls searching for a teaching job on the market without having a demand for it. "Today there are approximately 18,000 students at haredi teacher training seminars. However, the demand for new teachers in the haredi sector is currently estimated at approximately -2000-2500 a year. That means that there is an excess supply of teachers in the haredi sector, so they find it difficult to find work in teaching after completing seminary."

According to the writers, haredi students with teaching certificates can not serve as teachers in general education ("Even if they wanted to," as they put it), because they do not have an academic degree or the equivalent. Their proposal is that students will learn towards an academic degree so they can be used as teachers in general education, if they do not find work in sectorial schools.

This, they say, will also help raise the quality of teachers in the haredi sector, "to match the supply of teachers for the education system and increase the quality of teachers in the haredi sector, it is proposed to adjust the budgeting model of seminaries for teaching to the model of funding for academic colleges for teaching by eliminating support to institutions which do not train towards an academic degree or the equivalent, and in addition set quotas for teaching studies, as is customary in general colleges of education."

The plan that haredi women will serve as teachers in secular schools will encounter obstacles on various levels: not many women in the haredi community will agree to teach in secular schools, where there is no gender segregation, certainly not in higher grades. The consent of secular parents that haredi women teach their children - is also questionable.

To this requirement that the Haredi education system for girls will undergo change, the Haredi leadership has set an absolute resistance. At the meeting of the Council of Torah Sages it was decided last week: "They will not bring academic studies into the study of the Chinuch Atzmai Beis Yaakov and the general haredi education system." Furthermore, the Council added that the education system will not employ people with an academic degree. Working in secular places also raised resistance by the council.

Way to change the nature of yeshivos: cuts and incentives

Regarding the haredi educational system for boys, yeshiva world, the authors of the draft write: "Employment rates and productivity in the Haredi sector, are significantly lower than the general sector, in part due to the lack of basic studies which constitute a major component in acquiring the right tools to go out to the labor market."

Fundamental studies, in their conception, are Hebrew, mathematics and English. Due to the lack of these studies, say founders of the law: "a situation is created that boys at this age in the Haredi sector do not learn basic studies at all and complete the education system without a high school diploma and without proper training for the labor market."

The way to change in their opinion, is through cuts and incentives: "It is proposed to act to raise the eligible for matriculation in the Haredi population by establishing a committee to examine possible incentives to yeshiva ketana's for basic studies and in addition to examine increasing the number of yeshivos which will train for matriculation. It is proposed to lower the percentage of funding unique cultural institutions to 21% of theoretical student against a basic study charged at the rate of 21% of a general student. "

"In addition, the GEMS tests, are delivered today at the official system and which form a part of administrative tools of the Ministry of Education for the purpose of mapping the learning situation in schools. Most Haredi schools do not participate in GEMS or participate in it in part. To create a complete picture for managerial. pedagogical and budget decision making, it is proposed to condition funding of the education system, including the haredi educational institutions, by participation in the exams and international tests. "

In response to the draft law arrangements, MK Moshe Gafni said: "There were never such decrees in history. They want to close everything. Child care, seminaries, yeshivos, schools. "

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!