Porush is proposing a law of his own that will hit back at the secular school system. Porush is proposing that the budgets given to schools will be directly dependent, inversely proportional, on the level of violence in the schools. The less violence in a school, the more money it will get from the budget. The more violence, the less money.
According to Porush the increasing level of violence among students in the school system has already turned into a very serious societal problem. The failure of the system to effectively deal with the problem is another impetus in proposing this new law. Administrators and teachers will now be encouraged and incentivized to fight against the phenomenon of school violence and thereby lower the levels of violence in the schools and outside of school.
At the end of each school year, the school will report to the Minister of Education detailing the violent incidents involving the students of each school. The budgets transferred will then be distributed accordingly base don the reports.
Porush also defines in his proposal a scale of incidents, so that a school that reports 3 violent incidents over the course of the year will lose 5% of its budget, and 6 incidents would be another 5%. 12 incidents over the course of the year would make the school completely lose its funding. The deducted or lost funding would be given to the school in the following year if it would be able to show a decrease, or eradication, of violent incidents.
"Serious violent incidents" would be categorized as those involving drugs, alcohol, knifings, extreme violence, etc.
(source: NRG)
Not a bad idea...
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It is a terrible idea (not to mention a cheap shot). It would encourage schools to not report and not deal with violence for fear of losing funding. If anything, schools who deal with violence should be given extra funding for psychologists and other professionals.
ReplyDeleteI must say that there is also plenty of violence in the Chareidi schools I am familiar with. Not to mention disruptive and unruly behaviour outside of school hours.
Why doesn't MK Porush try to find another difference between Chareidi and non-Chareidi schools. Perhaps he can fund schools inversely proportionally to the length of boys' hair, or according to the lengths of girls' skirts.
haredi schools are not violent. kids are unruly and perhaps even undisciplined, but they do not generally have issues of serious violence such as knife fights, fist-fights, drugs and alcohol.. it just doesnt happen.
ReplyDeletethe closest it gets is a teacher who get violent and/or abusive, and that happens in any school system
Rafi - I strongly disagree with your statement that "Chareidi schools are not violent". My son was mercilessly bullied and beaten up in a Chareidi school in Beit Shemesh, and used to call us regularly to pick him up after school since his classmates would be waiting to ambush him on the way to the bus stop every day. We finally pulled him out of school and kept him at home for several months before finding someplace else for him. Chareidi children can be just as violent as non-Chareidim.
DeleteRabbi Sedley,
ReplyDeleteI'm shocked to read that you believe a segment of acheinu beis yisrael (other than Chareidim of course) would lie, cheat and cover up just for the sake of a little bit of money. Certainly you don't really think so.
Chas ve-shalom. I never meant to imply that anyone would stoop so low as to finesse the truth for large amounts of cash. I should have been dan le-kaf z'chus. Of course schools would be happy to report violence in their schools in return for less funding. In fact, the newspapers should print league tables of the most violent schools, to encourage enrollment and to help with staff morale.
DeleteApologies to anyone I may have inadvertently offended.
such a silly and brainless concept - has nothing to do with anything. A statement designed to do nothing but sow more discontent and deflect from real problems in both the haredi and public school system. Maybe instead of finding stupid ways to create more problems and play off base emotions, Israeli politicians might want to look for real solutions.
ReplyDelete