Funding decision causes storm in Hod Hasharon

Religious councilors were angered by the council's decision to reduce the funding to the Shas-run "El Hama'ayan" network of kindergartens.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY
A storm has broken out in Hod Hasharon over a council decision to stop funding the local yeshiva for young men and to stop providing greater funds for religious kindergartens than for secular ones, reports Yediot Hasharon. In a fiery meeting that lasted through an entire night, the council decided it would no longer fund the yeshiva to the tune of NIS 100,000, and would reduce the funding in religious kindergartens from NIS 6,000 per child to NIS 2,040, the sum paid for each child in a secular kingergarten. According to the report, opposition councilors initiated the move to stop funding the yeshiva, saying that only seven of the students there were from Hod Hasharon and there was no reason for the city to fund the rest of the students. Shas councilors said the decision was a blow to the status quo between religious and secular residents in Hod Hasharon, and ignored the fact that in every city's yeshiva there were students from other cities. Religious councilors were also angered by the council's decision to reduce the funding to the Shas-run "El Hama'ayan" network of kindergartens. They said religious students have "special needs" that require greater funding. But the council justified the decision on the grounds that funding religious kindergartens at a higher level than secular ones constitutes discimination against secular children. The "El Hama'ayan" network will now get just NIS 100,000, instead of the NIS 250,000 it got in the previous year.