[EDITORIALS]A bad education bill

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[EDITORIALS]A bad education bill

The Uri Party finalized its revised proposal on the “Private School Law.” The new bill would adopt a more open trusteeship system and give budget deliberation rights to school operations committees.
The Uri Party claims that the objective of the bill is to strengthen the public hold on, and transparency in private school administration. However, the revised proposal lessens the rights of the schools’ foundations and gives more weight to teachers and parents. The revised proposal uses the public hold on the schools as an excuse to limit the rights of the schools’ founders, which can also be interpreted as stealing the rights of school administration from the owners.
If we look at the contents of the proposal, school operations committee, an advisory board, has been elevated to a body making deliberations on budget matters. The board would have the rights to enact and modify school codes and deliberate budgets: It, in fact, would administer schools.
The future of private schools lies in the hands of school administration committees.
The committees are composed of teachers, professors, alumni and prominent figures in the schools’ regions. Currently, most of these committees consist mostly of teachers who are members of teachers’ unions and wield great influence upon the operations of schools. If their rights are strengthened even more, schools are bound to become political platforms. When founders spent their own money to establish a school, they had a reason to do so.
If we ignore all this, collective selfishness will prevail here, too. If this bill is implemented, a school that was established by a religious foundation would not be able to provide religious education. Moreover, if voluntary bodies such as teachers’ associations, parents’ associations and school staff societies become legal entities, schools will only become their fighting grounds.
There are private schools foundations that are weak and immoral. These institutions can be regulated with the current law. So the revised proposal can be viewed as an attempt to transfer the power of school administration to a certain group by using these few, weak private schools as an excuse.
Do not treat private schools that are true to their educational mission as criminals. We must encourage private schools so that they will develop into sound institutions.
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