170 municipal leaders blast coalition intention to have them fund informal Haredi education

Some 170 local council leaders send a strongly worded letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Education Minister Yoav Kisch, protesting a clause in the coalition deals compelling them to dedicate funding to informal Haredi education institutions, which don’t teach the full range of secular studies currently required by the state.

“We won’t agree to benefit one population over others by circumventing the considerations of the local council,” the letter says, according to Hebrew media reports. “We won’t allow the state to expropriate the authority and responsibilities of the local councils on education.”

“Recognition of informal institutions is done by the state, and therefore it is the state that must fund these institutions,” it continues. “We won’t agree to impose this huge funding task on local councils, which are forced to fund their formal education services from their regular budgets.”