Education Crisis in Arad as Chareidi Students Denied Classrooms After Municipality Neglects Their Needs

On Monday, in a meeting held at the Education, Culture and Sports Committee, MK Yosef Taieb (Shas) discussed the allocation of buildings for educational institutions under the supervision of the education system in Arad. The discussion involved Housing Minister Rabbi Yitzchak Goldknopf, who stated that the municipality of Arad holds dozens of empty classrooms and refuses to provide them for the chareidi public. He said, “Even the previous government built 14 classrooms in temporary buildings [for Arad]. The Education Ministry provided funding, but the municipality refuses to complete the construction.”

MK Taieb, chairman of the committee, stated, “In Arad, there are 7,400 students, of whom 3,920 are chareidi students. The municipality decided to allocate classrooms in the general sector and not provide options for students in the chareidi sector, who represent more than half of the city’s student population. In early childhood education, their number reaches 75%. Chareidi children are not second-class citizens. Why prioritize official educational institutions when the need in the city lies in non-official recognized institutions?”

Minister Chaim Bitton, minister in the Education Ministry, responded, “Arad lacks at least 32 classrooms for the upcoming academic year. Every decision made by the mayor of Arad is anti-chareidi. It cannot be that the mayor has made a detrimental decision for years, and no one speaks about it. It is an unprecedented audacity. These are regulated institutions supervised by the Education Ministry. Local authorities have caused the situation where children in Arad have no way to start the next school year, solely due to political considerations because they fear demographic growth.”

A representative from the Arad municipality was absent from the discussion. MK Taieb harshly criticized this: “Last week, the Arad municipality received the invitation for the discussion. Yesterday, the mayor announced that he would send a representative, but now I received a message that no one from their side will come, not even via Zoom. When the mayor has valid arguments, he should not be afraid to present them openly. It’s audacious.”

MK Keti Shitrit (Likud) expressed her concern: “The mayor of Arad acts in a discriminatory manner and leaves the children in the streets. The Education Ministry, through its legal department, can sue the Arad municipality. The Education Ministry has done this in the past with defiant mayors. The mayor is not a sultan, and he is not above the law.”

Deputy Director-General of Development at the Education Ministry Fars Toyl said, “The situation is not good. In Arad, there are five preschools located in unsuitable places. Every corner is utilized. Some preschools are located within schools or shelters. This is not a normal reality. Next year, the problem will worsen. It is illogical for educational buildings to be empty while students remain at home. There is a budget, but it has not been implemented yet. We have developed a work plan with the municipality of Arad, but the projects are not progressing. As time goes by, the gaps widen. We are requesting an explanation from the municipality regarding the empty classrooms and the improvement needed.”

Legal Advisor of the Education Ministry Eilat Malkaman said, “According to a court ruling, the local authority is not obligated to provide a structure for a non-official educational institution. In this specific case, it is not the fault of the local authority. We have allocated budgets to the mayor for the caravans as well. There have been cases in Yerushalayim where we made comparisons between a recognized non-official institution, which was larger than a smaller state educational institution. When the state allocates a budget, it wants optimization of the budget. The official institutions have priority in this case. The need for official institutions is evident. Now they are requesting optimization of the existing structures so that the state’s budget will be optimal. When they requested and received recognition and funding, I don’t know why the caravans were not built. There is no legal reason why they should not be built after the approvals were already given.”

A representative of the local Government, Amichai Drori, said, “It is the duty of the authorities to ensure education for every child in their jurisdiction. We are asking to have a discussion with the mayor because he knows his area best. Pressure needs to be put on the treasury to allocate additional budgets.”

Moshe Reichman, a father from Arad, said, “There is room to file a lawsuit by the Education Ministry against the municipality for not allocating 15 classrooms for the coming year. There is a waste of empty public buildings in the city. We filed appeals without success.”

MK Moshe Tur Paz (Yesh Atid) said, “The country is lacking 17,000 classrooms. It takes 10 months for the city of Arad to set up new classrooms. The Education Ministry needs to allocate additional funding for problems of this kind. There are isolated places where the budgetary solution is the only solution, and Arad is one of them.”

During the discussion, there was a confrontation between Minister Rabbi Goldknopf and MK Debbie Biton (Yesh Atid). “Don’t dance on the blood of children,” Rabbi Goldknopf said.

In summary, the committee calls on the mayor of Arad to allocate educational classrooms for all students in the city no later than September 1. If by then there are not enough classrooms for the chareidi sector, they should be given the empty classrooms from the general education sector temporarily. The committee will visit Arad to examine the issue.