Cabinet passes free preschool plan

A day of intense political horse trading ended Sunday with the cabinet approving significant budget cuts in all ministries – except the Defense Ministry – to finance free preschool education for all children aged three and above.The move will now have to be approved by the Knesset.The decision exempts the Defense Ministry from having to cut 4 percent of its budget like most of the other government ministries, and instead adds NIS 3 billion to its budget because of the changing and volatile situation in the region.Nevertheless, the cabinet agreed to a Finance Ministry request to increase its supervision of the defense budget.RELATED:Netanyahu pledges free toddler education in fall Steinitz: Defense to give up NIS 700m. to education Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said during a press conference following the decision that this would add badly needed transparency to the defense budget, and was something numerous finance ministers have dreamt of in the past. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu obtained a majority for the proposal – which passed by a vote of 21-8 – when his chief of staff, Natan Eshel, reached an agreement with Shas that secured the party’s support. The party’s four ministers – who earlier had threatened to vote against the measure – voted in favor because some of the planned cutbacks to the Shas-controlled Interior and Construction and Housing ministries were restored.var ord = window.ord || Math.floor(Math.random() * 1e16);document.write('');The five Israel Beiteinu ministers, and three of the four ministers from Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s Independence faction, voted against the decision.Following the vote Netanyahu characterized the decision as “unprecedented” and something that would “change the country’s priorities.”The pre-school funding was a key component of the recommendations issued by the Trajtenberg Committee for Socioeconomic Change, set up by the government in response to last summer’s wave of protests over the high cost of living.“They have been talking about a free education law for 27 years, but until now did not do it,” Netanyahu said. “This September there will be a quarter million children under the new framework.”The prime minister said the government decided to go beyond the Trajtenberg recommendations, and would also subsidize afternoon childcare, with eligibility to be determined not by income, but whether the child’s parents were working.“We want to encourage parents to work by subsidizing a long school day,” he said.Regarding the defense budget, Netanyahu – who in the cabinet meeting said it was impossible amid the current regional uncertainty to cut defense spending – said he had concluded it would be a “big mistake” to heed one of the Trajtenberg recommendations and take the money for the free education plan primarily from the defense budget. But placing the budget under the Finance Ministry’s supervision would make it more transparent and give the government more of an ability to monitor it, he said. The Defense Ministry will now establish a “transparency committee” with the Treasury and the Prime Minister’s Office that will provide complete access to the defense budget and particularly to the sections pertaining to salaries and retirement packages.Should the proposal approved by the cabinet pass the Knesset, 2,000 new preschools will be established. In addition, free after-hours daycare for children aged 3-9 will be introduced, and funding will be increased for parents who struggle to pay for school-related activities such as class excursions.The passage of the education reforms means only one of the Trajtenberg Report’s four chapters – housing – still awaits cabinet approval. An amended version of the taxation chapter came into effect on January 1, and the chapter on the cost of living is also waiting for Knesset approval. Hours after the government approved the free education plan, the prime minister vowed to work toward an affordable housing plan.“We will also bring the housing chapter in the Trajtenberg Report for approval,” Netanyahu said via his Twitter account.Barak, who opposed the proposal brought to the cabinet on Sunday, warned it would curb the ability of the IDF and the defense establishment to fulfill its responsibility to ensure the nation’s security, and would damage the authority of Chief of Staff Lt.- Gen. Benny Gantz.Despite the additional NIS 3b. allocated to the defense budget for 2012, defense officials said the IDF would still face a gap of NIS 4b. when it came to its needs over the coming year. They slammed the government’s refusal to commit to increasing the budget in 2013.“The solution offered today is like taking a Tylenol for a much larger problem,” a senior defense official said. “All this does is postpone the problem by one year.”The cabinet meeting was particularly tense. At one point, Gantz stood up and yelled at Steinitz: “I expect you to respect soldiers in uniform.” Gantz lost his temper after Steinitz told him he was only allowed to talk when called upon.“We are very concerned about the decision’s strategic implications,” another official said. “This could send us back to the way the IDF looked in 2006 before the Second Lebanon War.”The IDF had hoped to receive a larger budget supplement to help it prepare for the ongoing regional changes and particularly the evolving threats in Syria and Egypt. In addition, there is concern that the current budget will not enable the IDF to implement its multi-year plan that was supposed to see the continued development and procurement of missile defense systems and interceptors.Israel Beiteinu head Avigdor Lieberman said his party’s ministers voted no because Arab and haredi children were not excluded from the free pre-schooling. The benefits should only be given to children with two working parents who served in the IDF, he said.“There is no need to fund Islamic Movement activists in Umm el-Fahm and Sikrikim [haredi extremists] in Beit Shemesh,” he said.Steinitz responded to him in the cabinet by saying the benefits were “for all children, regardless of who their parents are and what they do.”Netanyahu also faced criticism from United Torah Judaism, which doesn’t have a minister.UTJ’s Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman complained that Netanyahu, who holds the title of health minister, was cutting NIS 16 million from his budget.The prime minister’s Likud rival, Vice Premier Silvan Shalom, voted in favor of the plan after a substantial cut to his Negev and Galilee Development Ministry was restored.But earlier, he fiercely attacked the decision, calling it “delusional and contemptible” and warning that it would deal a severe blow to the weakest sectors of the population.Shalom hinted that the planned cuts to his ministry were political, saying “there are those who want to assassinate me politically.”Nadav Shemer contributed to this report.Asked by Israel Radio whether he would quit the cabinet in response to the cut, he said “it could be that there are those who would want me to do that.”

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