Christian schools in Israel say budget cuts hurt community (AP vs. Israel)

Associated Press ^ | May 28, 2015 8:20 AM EDT | Areej Hazboun

[Olog-hai]

It was an unlikely display of protesters: nuns cloaked in white, a black-clad priest clutching a golden scepter and dozens of Arab schoolchildren picketing outside the hulking headquarters of Israel’s Education Ministry. Their message, raised high on large banners: “Take your hands off our schools.”

Private Christian schools are among Israel’s highest ranked educational institutions, established by churches in the Holy Land hundreds of years ago—long before Israel’s own creation. But school administrators are accusing Israel of slashing their funding as a pressure tactic to get them join the Israeli public school system—a move they say would interfere with the schools’ Christian values and high academic achievements.

They are also complaining of discrimination, since as Israel moves to cut money to Christian schools it continues to fully fund large private school networks that cater to ultra-Orthodox Jews. […]

Under a longstanding arrangement, Christian schools and other private schools that manage their own affairs receive only partial government funding, with the remainder of their budgets covered by either donations or tuition. The government funds cover roughly three-quarters of private schools’ standard costs, but it has been cutting back on other supplementary funding. …

[Olog-hai]

The way the AP is presenting it, it is the Jews defunding the Christians.

[Olog-hai]

Better re-read the article. AP’s spinning it to make it look like the Jews are taking money away from the Christians. And of course they have the Arabs in the mix.

[jjotto]

Nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity.

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/255309/chinuch-atzmai-schools-must-include-core-subjects-in-curriculum.html

...Chinuch Atzmai schools are referred to as “recognized/unofficial” schools that receive state funding. When the individual schools submit their paperwork to renew their status and entitlement to funding, if they are not 100% in compliance with the new directive, they will not be accepted and lose most of their funding.

The permits of all Chinuch Atzmai schools expired and every school will have to apply for eligibility once again, and those failing to comply with the new curriculum will be without the majority of the schools’ funding...

[Mrs. Don-o]

Hard for me, an outsider, to figure out just what the facts are. The article states that "... Israel moves to cut money to Christian schools it continues to fully fund large private school networks that cater to ultra-Orthodox Jews."

I realize they're saying "ultra Orthodox Jews," (Haredi?) which presumable does not' mean "regular Orthodox Jews" or "Conservative" or "Reform" or "Secular" Jews (which I think about 80% of Israeli Jews are) or whatever else there is.

So it looks like "ultra Orthodox," specifically, are being favored --- at least that's what this article implies.

But it makes no sense for Israel, struggling with a budget crunch, to suggest that the Christian schools become public schools. Then the Israeli taxpayers would be shouldering, not a fraction of the financial burden, but ALL of the burden.

How does that solve the government budget woes!?

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'm not focusing in on whether this is "discrimination" against the Christian schools or whether it is direcrted at all the faith-based schools including the Hasidim. In any case, the position of the Israeli Education Ministry seems self-contradictory, since their alternative for them all is that they can all become public schools.

I'll repeat what I wrote to Nachum:

It makes no sense for Israel, struggling with a budget crunch, to suggest that the Christian schools become public schools. Then the Israeli taxpayers would be shouldering, not a fraction of the financial burden, but ALL of the burden. How does that solve the government budget woes!?

[Nachum]

Israel, a long time ago, agreed to fund some parochial Jewish education. It has been a deal made with large groups of orthodox Jews for a long time. It is also a hotly debated topic in Israel as the non-religious left hate it.

That Israel doesn’t or won’t fund private Christian education is a non-starter in Israel. The AP is using this article to hammer the right wing in Israel for Netanyahu is a strong voting bloc. The sneaky lie to the propaganda is that it is hoping to create a wedge issue to drive Israeli Christians to the leftist camp.

It is all about left wing Israeli- Orthodox-Jew hating politics. The left could not cheat their way to beating Netanyahu so expect to see a systematic flow of articles attacking the Israeli right in any slimy way they can think of.

[jjotto]

This is targeted at religious Jews, who are a growing percentage of the population. The secular establishment does not want to decrease the number of students under their control. Because Israel is a secular state, Christian schools fall into the same category as uncompromising Jewish religious schools.

From the link above:
“In the large chassidic courts there is no question, for they will not even consider complying with the ministry’s directive. They will have to find the funding but they will never compromise and permit state intervention in the chinuch of their children.”

Instead of standing up, these Christians want to shout about persecution. How well will the Palestinian state they support treat them?

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'd trust you as having more "inside insight" than I would, that's for sure.

But I still don't understand it. This article is reporting on a Christian demonstration (picketing) at the Israeli Ministry of Education offices, right? Something that has never happened before, right? So that is the "news hook" and it kinda-sorta explains why article would be reporting specifically the Christian schools' point of view. (Because they're reporting on this specific demonstration.)

Seems to me that if the Ministry of Education wanted to save the government some huge expenses, they would be doing all they can to prevent these faith-schools from closing. If the close, it will dump all the 30,000 Christian/Arab students into the public system: surely NOT what the Min of Ed would want from a standpoint of lessening the government's financial burden.

Am I right? Or am I missing something?

[Mrs. Don-o]

From US News and World Report: "... But last year, the Education Ministry also placed limits on how much tuition the schools could collect from parents." I don't know if it's "Persecution." It's a more practical reality: if they lose public funding AND they're not permitted to raise more from the parents (which the article says), they will close.

And then the govt. will have to assume the entire burden for those 30,000 students.

It's as straight up-and-down as it could be. Will the Min of Ed continue funding these various faith schools at previous levels of funding, or will they scuttle the whole faith-school thing and pick up 100% of the funding?

That seems to be the reality on the ground.

[jjotto]

As far as I can tell, the claim of blocking outside funding was just made up.

[SJackson]

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..................

The AP article falsely depicts this as a Jews harming Christians issue, which it isn't, it's a public vs private issue of both funding and curricula, which has been a big issue usually passed off as crazy Haredi Jews objecting to more math and science. But you could get the basic Jews harming Christians facts from the article, spread out

The Christian schools' fight reflects a wider battle being waged by other private schools - which have the status of being "recognized but unofficial." According to the Education Ministry, there are a total of 277 elementary schools with this status. Christian administrators say their 47 church-run elementary schools are affected by the budget crisis.

These schools are all facing the same budget cuts that the Christian private schools are, said Amnon De Hartog, a lawyer representing one of 23 private schools - mostly Jewish religious schools - that are petitioning Israel's Supreme Court against the recent budget cuts.

47 Church schools out of 277 impacted by the cuts, hardly an action directed at Christians.

Per the Independent and Fox, The Christian schools' fight reflects a wider battle being waged by other private schools — which have the status of being "recognized but unofficial." According to the Education Ministry, there are a total of 277 elementary schools with this status. Christian administrators say their 47 church-run elementary schools are affected by the budget crisis....Advocates for the Arab community in Israel say the situation of church-run schools is different from other private schools. Some 30,000 Arab students — about half of them Muslim and half of them Christian — study in about 50 church-run schools in the country.

So of the 47 to 50 of 277, half the students may be Muslim, Jews discriminating against Christians and Muslims I guess.

So 47 of 277, less than 20% of the schools impacted are Christian, or Christian and Muslim, 80% of the schools impacted are Jewish, and it's a Jews vs Christian issue.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I know very well that the jounos can be framers, trimmers, and liars. But this private funding thing would seem to be a key point. How could one find out?

[SJackson]

You might not the numbers in post 31. This is an ongoing problem, but usually covered in terms of the crazy Orthodox Jews who don’t want to work or don’t want to include state secular curricula. Christians and Muslims are being treated no differently than Jews, who are the vast majority impacted by these policies. I’m a supporter of vouchers, but state funding does lead to things like this. Particularly when 75% of the “private” religious school funding is public.

[Mrs. Don-o]

“jounos” = “journos” = crooked little journalists.

[SJackson]

And Chinuch Atzmai schools are almost always portrayed as Jewish schools, despite the fact that many are Christian or Muslim.

[Mrs. Don-o]

That's true: I see your point.

I can see how this is not a matter of "discrimination" or "persecution" in particular, but still the impact on the Christians would arguably be disproportionate, since Christians are only 2% of he Israeli population, and --- according to what I'm reading --- a relatively low-income subset. Therefore if their 47 elementary schools are affected--- yes, it's only 47 schools, but it's a HUGE proportion of how this tiny 2% maintain and transmit their religious identity.

Well, I hope it can be resolved amicably. I hope the Min of Ed stops blocking them from doing a lot more fundraising from parents and donors. Why would that be a problem? It sounds like a solution.

[cookcounty]

Something to think about: The private and “christian” schools are loaded with anti-Israel propagandists. So at least part of this is about (long-term) national security.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Good thing there aren’t any anti-Christian propagandists. :o/

[SunkenCiv]

There's a great deal of outside funding for "Palestinian" schools, even the Christian ones; Israel's gov't funds non-secular non-gov't schools as well as the public schools, and the funding is based on how much of the national core curriculum is included. It should be interesting to note that Haredi schools get the least, and in this chart from 2013, 3000 less per student than the Arab schools.

[snip] An analysis by TheMarker shows they get an average of NIS 27,000 a year per student, while Arab students receive NIS 21,000, and Haredim NIS 18,700. [/snip] [Lior Dattel | Jul. 19, 2013]

[SunkenCiv]

> Thought the best way for the government to take their hands off your schools was to not rely on public money?

/bingo