Parents committee calls for boycott of extra school payments

The Forum of Regional Parents Committees on Friday called on parents to withhold paying a range of additional payments to schools for the coming year, a week before classes are set to begin.

The call by the parents committee came after the Knesset’s Education Committee did not approve lowering the cost of payments for the coming school year last week.

The payments, which cover extracurricular activities, school trips and other non-mandatory parts of the curriculum, will range from NIS 556 ($155) for first graders to NIS 1,338 ($372) for high school seniors for the 2017-2018 school year.

In theory, public education is supposed to be free in Israel, funded by tax payers.

In protest of the fees not being lowered, the parents committee called for the payments to be cancelled and funded by the state, saying the Education Ministry and the Knesset Education Committee promised government funds would be found to cover the fees.

In response to the declaration of the committee, local councils warned that the failure to pay the fees would leave schools short of funds and ultimately harm students, Channel 2 reported.

The Education Ministry said that the fees were not increased from last year and that it is working to ease the financial burden on parents.

“We believe that in the coming year there will be trips and enrichment activities and we call on parents to open the school year properly,” it said in a statement.