Religious families demand school funding in Herzliya

A municipal spokesman said the city had asked the Education Ministry for a religious middle and high school, but the ministry had refused.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Religious families in Herzliya are demanding that the city begin funding their children's secondary-school education outside Herzliya because of a lack of state religious secondary schools in the city, reports www.local.co.il. The parents sent a letter to mayor Yael German and to Education Minister Yuli Tamir saying that in order to obtain a religious education at secondary-school level, they are being forced to send their children privately to schools outside the city, where they are being charged fees ranging from NIS 6,000 to NIS 17,000. "We are a group of families with a national-religious or ultra-Orthodox character who through lack of choice send our children to study at private educational institutions, primarily outside the city, and this is because for many years there has been no answer for the religious public regarding studies at junior high and high school in Herzliya," the letter said. It added that the fees for such education were "huge," ranging from NIS 6,000 to NIS 17,000 per child, and said that although the city prided itself on its education system, it was not taking care of a significant group of taxpayers. "Just as you have invested in the children of the city in general, we demand that you invest in our children for the future and for the present," the letter said. A municipal spokesman said the city had asked the Education Ministry for a religious middle and high school, but the ministry had refused on the grounds that there were too few students for such schools. The spokesman said that as a result, the city was trying to ease the burden on parents by subsidizing religious education outside the city to the tune of NIS 1,500 per child, which was sent directly to the institution involved.