Sign of a Sick Society?
The Knesset voted today to divert NIS 250 million (about $100M) of funds it doesnt have to help fund ‘private’ schools. That means Haredi ones. All the slippery politicians voted for it. It marks a victory for the morally bankrupt Shas party, whose hero has been indicted multiple times for diverting funds, and whose party has bargained for years for this agreement. You can bet that the private Druze schools up on the Golan Heights aren’t going to see an agora of that money. Nor any Muslim schools in Northern Israel.
Israel has many serious problems, each worthy of discussion, votes and funding. Spending time on propping up religious private schools — schools that it does not regulate, supervise or have any control over whatsoever — is a clear violation of the social contract the government is supposed to have with all its residents.
The American push for vouchers pales in its impropriety in the face of this egregious theft of public funds. Israel, a land that used to pride itself on high academic standards, has been steadily slipping. Funding these navel-gazing, self-interested schools does not further any of Israel’s national interests. For shame!