Students visit Auschwitz (Archive)
Photo: Reuters
State Comptroller to probe prices of youth delegations to Poland
Comptroller asked to probe Education Ministry for its 'rich kid policy' on Holocaust remembrance trips
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss plans to probe the Education Ministry in light of rising prices students are charged for participating in youth delegations to the concentration camps in Poland.
The comptroller's office told Ynet Sunday that among other things it would investigate the issue of flight tickets handed out by tourism agencies for every number of students participating. The free tickets are often used by accompanying teachers, at the expense of the students' parents.
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The price per participant is currently around $1,300, an increase of over $300 in the past two years. Many parents find the price too steep, and a Knesset investigation has found that most of the students who attend the trip come from an affluent socioeconomic background.
Scholarships awarded by the Education Ministry tend to be relatively low, and range from around 15-20% of the price.
Yedid organization has recently appealed to the comptroller to investigate the high prices. The letter to the comptroller's office says the ministry hands out free tickets to teachers and that it was neglecting to consider cheaper travel options for the annual delegations.
In a similar move, students from Rabin High School in Ashkelon have recently appealed to Education Minister Gideon Saar requesting that he fund their trip to Poland in 2010.
"We feel a great need to go out and identify with the memories of the victims of Nazism during World War II," says the letter to Saar. "The expense of the trip is one our parents cannot afford, especially during the economic crisis we are currently experiencing."
The letter asks, "Are trips to Poland intended for rich kids only? Are kids like us, whose parents belong to the middle or lower socioeconomic classes not worthy of joining the trip without our parents having to take out a loan, or should we just give up and not go?"
The Education Ministry had no comment on the claims.
