One of the issues on the agenda of Sunday’s cabinet meeting is the amendment of a government decision following a signed coalition agreement between Gideon Saar’s New Hope (Tikva Chadasha) and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. The cabinet ministers are asked to approve the reversal of a resolution designating a special budget to support Ariel University and convert it into general support for institutions of higher learning.
However, New Hope issued a statement saying this is mostly fake news, used to besmirch the government’s good intentions regarding increasing the funding for Ariel University.
On occasion, the opposition media cry Wolf at the sight of a Schnauser.
As Israel Hayom and Arutz 7 noted, Sunday’s cabinet agenda reads: “On October 24, 2021, the government passed a resolution amending, among other things, the appendix to the resolution, updating the matters and amounts arising from coalition agreements from the date of the decision until the date of its amendment, and it was determined that the amount of NIS 70 million ($22 million) will be allocated in the years 2022-2021 for Ariel University.”
The agenda item continues: “In light of Government Resolution 666 regarding the establishment of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education on the designation of funds based on budgetary political agreements for certain entities, and after a professional process that was carried out by the Education Ministry to examine the suitability of the intended uses of said budgets within the budget structure, it is proposed to amend the appendix to the decision so that the details of the designation will determine ‘support for institutions of higher education’ and the budget would be allocated following the decisions of the Budgeting Committee and its rules.”
New Hope said in its statement on Sunday: “Fake News. New hope has submitted for approval an annual budget increase of NIS 50 million ($16 million) for Ariel University to compensate for years of neglect by previous governments. The approved budget increase is a success that came true only following our insistence. Regarding the government’s decision: the law does not allow direct budgeting for a specific academic institution, therefore, it was decided on an across the board budget increase of NIS 70 million ($22 million), of which NIS 50 million ($16 million) will be allocated to Ariel University, and the rest to other academic institutions.”