'Reinstate Trajtenberg C'tee recommendation'

Work should be condition for school subsidies, Israel Beiteinu says.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Fighting for the little guys_521 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Fighting for the little guys_521
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Israel Beiteinu demanded on Monday that the government reinstate a Trajtenberg Committee-recommended condition for parents to be employed in order to receive subsidies for their children’s education.
The Ministerial Committee on Economics and Society, led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, holds meetings that are closed to the press and does not release its protocols.
Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov sent a letter to Netanyahu appealing the “miserable” decision and revealing that last Monday, the 17-minister committee canceled the employment requirement for subsidizing daycare and education for ages three to nine. The Trajtenberg Committee on social change recommended the employment rule.
The tourism minister, a member of the Ministerial Committee on Economics and Society, called to reverse the change, calling it “underhanded opportunism” that the government must immediately reverse.
“The decision blatantly contradicts the Trajtenberg report and your government’s policy, as well as agreements between you and Israel Beiteinu,” Meseznikov wrote.
“The spirit of last summer’s protest is still around, and [the public] still wants changes in the priorities in the State of Israel,” he added.
According to the minister, who is responsible for Israel Beiteinu’s economic policies, the canceled employment requirement continues the existing order of priorities, which gives preference to populations that do not do their part, in that they do not join the work force.
In addition, Meseznikov said the committee’s decision harms the middle class, which works and fulfills its responsibilities to the state.