Finance minister calms fears: Education budget will not be cut

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) has addressed fears over possible cuts to the Education Ministry budget, saying in a special statement issued on Monday that not only would the education budget not be slashed, it would grow.

The Finance Ministry presented the government with its 2015-2016 budget bill draft, which calls for a 3%, or 3.3 billion shekel ($870 million), cut across all government ministries. However, the ministry said the education budget was the exception to this.

"In 2014, the education budget stood at 45.4 billion shekels [$12 billion] and in 2016 it will be 49.5 billion shekels [$13.1 billion] -- an increase of around 4 billion [$1 billion] -- and this is despite the cuts across all other government ministries," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Education Ministry officials, however, were still concerned. Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi) has demanded that any cut to the education budget be restricted to less than 100 million shekels ($26.4 million), as specified in the coalition agreement with his party. Bennett warned that unless his demand was met he would vote against the budget.

"If Finance Ministry [officials] think they can undermine education, they'll find out they can't pass the budget," Bennett tweeted.

On Monday, Bennett said, "There will not be a cut of 1 billion shekels to education on my watch. Such a cut is destructive and will mean we won't be able to strengthen education in the periphery, won't bridge the education gaps, nursery schools won't get more help, we won't reverse the trend of getting worse at math, we won't be able to strengthen education toward values, and we won't alter the violent discourse in Israeli society. I know the finance minister well and am convinced that he won't be the person to destroy education in the periphery and widen social gaps."

Bennett also lashed out at planned cuts to institutions of higher education.

"The Finance Ministry intends to cut a quarter of a billion shekels from higher education, but it makes no sense that the State of Israel would go 20 years backward in academic research," he said. "It makes no sense to cut academic resources while we are making incredible efforts to bring back quality higher education in the country."

The Council for Higher Education joined Bennett's call and on Monday turned to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kahlon to express concern over the plan to cut funds for universities and colleges.

"Everything that has been painstakingly invested in these fields in recent years could all be for naught, and the considerable damage to the national strength and cultural, scientific and technological might of the State of Israel will be irreversible," the council wrote.

Tensions, meanwhile, were being expressed in other areas of the educational system on Monday, as 160 local authorities officially declared that if the problem of overcrowded classrooms was not resolved, they would not open the new school year.

However, a forum of 115 local authority heads, established by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Yeruham Municipal Council head Michael Biton and several others, said in a statement that the forum was not a partner to the strike threat.

"Overcrowding in classrooms is an important issue, but this is a struggle that primarily serves stronger and more established local authorities that have the luxury of fighting for this privilege," the forum said.

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