This morning at the Israeli Democracy Institute conference Naftali Bennett took an interesting campaign stance.

Today, in honor of the first day of school, many politicians spent time visiting schools around the country.

This is an unparalleled chutzpa. There is still no study anywhere in the world that shows that someone who studies core curriculum subjects ends up being a better earner..

So the Finance Ministry and the Teachers Union came to an agreement. School will start on time, the agreement is for 5 years or so so as long as the two sides keep their end of the deal there should not be any strikes in the coming years, and kids will be able to go to school.

Back in January it became known to the public that Belz was negotiating with the Ministry of Education to establish its internal school systems as Haredi public schools, in which their students would study core curriculum subjects, and they worked out a deal regarding supervision and inspections along with full financial support. Belz was upset that Degel Hatorah was not allowing them to join the Chinuch Atzmai system, and they needed a solution to their deep financial crisis, and could no longer go it independently. Belz came under heavy criticism from other Haredi factions, but Degel persisted int heir refusal to allow new members into Chinuch Atzmai.

According to reports in the news, Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman is putting together a plan that would adjust the school schedule to be more in line with the general working schedule. Lieberman is willing to pay off the teachers to get their agreement to this change - the teachers union has always opposed changes to the school-vacation schedules in the past.

The news is reporting that the Belz people (educational committee, representatives of the Admor and whoever else is important there) have been negotiating with the government to convert the Belz educational system and all, or most of, its schools, into joining the public school system. They would become what has become known as "MaMaCh" - Mamlachti Haredi schools. That is the public school system for the Haredi community.

The City of Bet Shemesh recently announced it would be opening municipal nursery/kindergarten schools for girls in the Haredi community. The announcement claimed that these institutions would be run in the style of the classic Haredi Bais Yaakov schools.

I am not quite sure what the benefit of this is for the city. Obviously such schools would likely be a bit cheaper for parents and the schedules might be more coordinated with the general systems, but from the perspective of the city I dont get it. Why get into that mess? It might be  a little cheaper for them to run this type of school than to fund the private schools, but the funding to the private schools is not going to stop so I dont see the point.

Obviously the rabbonim of the Haredi community are against this move. The rabbis have all put out statements in opposition (a letter posted in English signed by many rabbis will be posted below) and the various Haredi newspapers have all written against it as well. They consider it a stumbling block and being not led by the gedolei yisrael and it will lead to much worse things.

This is not really new - not the initiative and not the opposition. The State decided several years ago to start "Mamachs" - a network of public schools for the Haredi community. Haredi leadership fought, and continues to fight, against those as well. The Haredi community does not want anyone else form outside the community, and especially the State, to get involved in educating Haredi children. 

The duty of the government is to enable continuous learning, otherwise we will be raising a generation of zombies

the Ministry of Education could be using CoronaVirus as a learning opportunity and model. 

Rav Baruch Dov Povarski, the Rosh Yeshiva of Ponevez, made an interesting comment that made me wonder.

The Porush family, MK Meir and Mayor Yisrael, are complaining that the government has not provided the kosher telephones the community needs, and that why, at least in part, they are pushing to open the schools against the rules and are pressuring the government to leave them be.

this is the first I am hearing about this trend or discussion. I am a bit wowed. for years people have been talking about sending to public school with after school Jewish education because of the high tuition and the crisis it causes so many. on the one hand this is a good idea. The kids will get the education without the high tuition and without having to mix with the non-Jewish kids. It is the perfect opportunity for following through on the "threat" that they never otherwise would have done.

on the other hand, it does seem likely that what he says at the end is correct - many kids will surely not get a Jewish education, at least in a serious way. But then again, are they now? Many of our schools give a great education - but are all the kids getting a great education? So many just don't seem to fit in and the schools can't or don't customize anything for them. This has been discussed for decades, I am not saying a chiddush. Probably the kids that would not get a good Jewish education in such a scenario probably already are not anyways.

The "Nine Days" starts this year on July 22 and ends on Tisha B'Av on July 30.

That is, unless you are talking about the Nine Days of the Israeli school system.

Everything has been in some disarray, with parents complaining that the time off due to COVID lockdowns and school closures needs to be made up. Also matriculation exam prep was messed up for many students in the 11th and 12th grades. The Teachers Union has not wanted to make anything up by giving up days that would normally be summer vacation.

The final decision seems to be that the school year will be extended by Nine Days. (source: JPost)

The Nine Days will not overlap with the Nine Days, which is a bit of a shame, since religious kids now have 18 summer days they can't do anything significantly fun instead of just 9, but so be it.

Abba Eban is famously quoted as having said "the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity" (he is actually often misquoted as having said "The Palestinians never miss an opportunity...", but that is irrelevant right now).

The Israeli Teachers Union can be accused similarly. The Teacher's Union never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

The schools are just getting started now after about 8 weeks off due to Corona (including time that would have been off for Pesach). The back to school effort is staggered and slow, but it is happening.

The school calendar has a vacation day for this Tuesday - Lag B'Omer.
In normal years Lag B'Omer should not be a vacation day, but it traditionally has been. So many people go to Meron to visit and pray by Kever Rashbi. Even if many do not, they are still up late at local bonfires and get-togethers. And even if you would push the kids to go to sleep at a semi-normal time, the teachers already have it set as a vacation day and have always refused to waive that. Lag B'Omer is not normally a vacation day for anybody else, so parents have to work or take a vacation day because the schools are off.

With schools now having been off for so long and the kids educations schedules so far off track, parents were expecting that this Tuesday would be a "normal" school day despite it being Lag B'Omer. School is just getting back after such a trauma and you are going to throw in a pointless vacation day so soon? Don't they need to make up says anyway? There is not even anything to do this Lag B'Omer that justifies the vacation day, as the traditional bonfires, and Meron, have all been banned. It just makes sense to have this Tuesday be a a school day.

Yet the Teachers Union announced that they are not giving up their vacation day and Tuesday there will be no school. Parents are upset but the Teachers Union spokesperson responded that the teachers have not had vacation until now as they have been working by teaching remotely the entire time. Additionally, the summer vacation was shortened by 9 days for the sake of school, making the teachers lose those vacation days as well.
source: Kipa

They do it because they can. It is a ridiculous. Teachers are wonderful, and they worked hard to teach via a technology most of them were not familiar with using methods they were not familiar with. It surely was not easy for them. But honestly, they taught far fewer hours than normal, so saying they worked and taught throughout the Corona crisis is not quite accurate - they did but they only taught a couple of hours a day at most and not a full day of work.

Of course they should not lose a vacation day out of their own pockets, and they should be paid handsomely for the days that they must teach instead of being on vacation, but they should not have the power to thwart the return to school and the kids getting back into a routine and making up the days.

With the country struggling to get back to school and work, this is a decision that should not be in their hands.

We insisted that the return to the educational system would not be obligatory. Children will be sent back to their schools only according to the discretion of the parents. Personally, I would not send my children back now.

  -- Minister Aryeh Deri

The State Comptroller released is annual report today. In it Ombudsman Engelman had some comments on the Haredi educational system.

The report says that only 3% of students in the Haredi educational system do the Bagrut matriculation exams. Even taking into account the Haredi schools that teach core curriculum studies, the level of the teachers hired for teaching subjects like Mathematics and English is very low. 95% of Mathematics teachers in the Haredi system are people who themselves never learned math in any significant way. 40% of the text books used in the Haredi system have not been updated in years and are not fit for use. The vast majority of English teachers in the Haredi system have no professional training. Only 10% of the teachers in the Haredi school systems have academic training to teach. There is absolutely no oversight in the system.

The Ombudsman's conclusion is that basic educational norms are not being implemented in the Haredi educational system.
source: ynet and others

Hello, Captain Obvious!

In Hebrew there is a phrase, that can be used seriously or rhetorically, "You just discovered America!"

Despite UTJ getting a sweet deal from Netanyahu to join the coalition without even having to fight or negotiate for keeping their power, while the rest of the Netanyahu bloc all has to accept the fact that they will get less this time around, MK Yisrael Eichler is now threatening that UTJ will not join the coalition, unless...

According to Behadrei, Eichler wants the government to found an entirely new stream of schools for the Haredi educational system and fund it 100%.

According to Eichler, there are two officially recognized Haredi streams right now - Maayakn hachinuch Hatorani (of Shas) and Chincuh Atzmai (of Degel). Since 1992 these chains have been funded 100% just like the official State school system.

According to Eichler, the hassidic school systems were not granted the same recognition because they always wanted to preserve 100% control over the hashkafa of their educational system and have made do with their system of schools being classified as mosdot ptur - exempt, with diluted funding from the State.

The financial state of the educational system has caused a major problem for the parents and the schools, with donations drying up and parents unable to pay much and tuition rising. And that was before the Corona crisis. Now everything is much worse as people have lost jobs and businesses and even people before who had money now do not necessarily have and parents cannot be expected to pay hundreds of shekels each month.

If a new stream is not founded and funded completely, UTJ will not enter the coalition.

Interestingly, he seems to be speaking for the entire UTJ when he says this. I wonder if the others in his party agree and would hold out for this.

Eichler is forgetting about a third Haredi stream of education that already exists. that is, the State Haredi Education. UTJ refuses to recognize it and fights against the opening of school under this system wherever they can. The schools that do get opened have so far, supposedly, been flourishing with a very happy student and parent body.

Of course, it then will nto be enough to star a Hassidic stream of schools, as they will need separate streams for Belz, and for Gur and for Viznitz and for Dushinsky and for any others that operate their own schools and want to get in on this.

One of the first things to be closed down when CoronaVirus was identified as spreading dangerously fast were the schools. Only after Pesach did distance learning really become a thing in any significant manner. Before Pesach there was a small amount of distance learning, but it was not serious, in both the amount of time daily, the amount of material, the importance given to it and the preparation for it. Even since Pesach, with it being taken more seriously, it is far from a full day of learning.

Because of that, many parents have spoken in frustration about paying tuition while there is not any real significant school. That talk might go away now with more serious distance learning in place, at least in many schools, But for much of the month of March, at least if not also April, parents think they should not have had to pay tuition.

I do not know if any parents actually cancelled their standing payments, but it was definitely discussed as a possibility. I am confident that there were surely some parents who cancelled, while others did not.

It is really a difficult situation, as schools still need to pay teachers, but many people have lost their jobs and businesses and might not have extra money to pay for schooling they are not even getting.

the question is a legal one, as well as a moral one, but it is also a halachic question.

The beis din in Beitar has now reportedly dealt with this issue and issued a psak. After conferring with government officials to determine the exact status of the finances and of the teachers (for example, the Ministry of Education prohibited schools from putting their teachers on unpaid leave), the beis din decided that school principals must discount part of the payments for the parents, and in a second some money will be refunded to the parents for previous payments.

According to the article linked, the psak was accepted as reasonable by all sides.

If the government is really looking for ways to help people struggling because of the closures and lockdowns, which I am not sure is really the case, one thing for them to do would be to stop all payments from parents and cover all costs of the schools in the interim, especially considering it i the government preventing the schools from putting the teachers on unpaid leave, during which they would be able to collect unemployment benefits.