The disturbing new Israeli law would fund religious institution even if they do not meet basic education standards...
(edit-Added the link)
I really have not seen this reported or talked about anywhere, but I was deeply disurbed by it.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
The Knesset plenum on Wednesday passed preliminary readings of two bills that would enable ultra-Orthodox schools to circumvent the government's core curriculum program.
Religious Yeshivas in Israel have long attempted to skirt the basic standards of education in Israel and to focus only on religious judaic texts. This of course completely circumvents the supposed purpose of education in the nation which is to ensure that graduates are prepared to enter into civil society and the workplace.
Even more distrubing is of course the fact that these religious students do not pay taxes or enter into the military like most Israelis. They do not get regular jobs and spend all of their time devoted to the study of torah.
Yet, in Israel this is the norm. The state does fund religious schools and has done so since its inception. However, three years ago the High Court of Justice ruled that
schools that do not implement the Education Ministry's core curriculum program within the next two months will cease to be eligible for ministry funding.
These basic standards include such things as Jewish History, Mathematics and Grammar. It is inconcievable that a school should not teach these basics to students and would still recieve funding, and yet this is exactly what this bill would allow. THe legislation would specifically go around the High Court and not be up for Judicial Review.
As a secularist, I am against all state funding of religious education. However, the state of Israel clearly believes it prudent to fund religious schools. It should not compromise on forcing those institutions that it funds to meet the same basic standards and offer the same general education as all other schools do. No sane education system can function when a large percentage of students it funds end up with no true education and no ability to integrate into society.
The basic idea behind state funded education is that the whole society benefits when individuals are not ignorant and have a general basic knowledge. What state benefit is there when students do not know to add or subtract but learn about thousand year old law's of a former theocratic empire?
As a state, Israel like any other has limited funds and should use those funds only in endeavors that have a true utilitarian purpose.
This legislation is also obviously pro-Jewish at the expense of Israel's other religions. Would the religious community support legislation that ensured that arab or christian religious institutions also recieved financial parity? Somehow I truly doubt that would be the case.
As a concerned American-Israeli I felt it utterly prudent to raise awareness of this insidious legislation and the harm it could do the education and well being of the Israeli state.