Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman has turned out to be an effective public official. Judging from the alacrity in which he has engaged public sector disputes, one has to wonder whether he enjoys taking a beating. The Finance Ministry's proposal to the nation's teachers union (before a deal was announced early Wednesday) was good, even though it could have been tweaked. It is a solid basis for tackling a school system beset by a lack of effectiveness.
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As the threat of the strike loomed, I could not but feel envy toward the Haredi school system. I saw how one official there said, "We don't have strikes here." Yes, we should criticize the Haredim for not taking up the core curriculum, but we must also keep in mind that the very precept of engaging in Torah study is what has preserved the Jewish people over the ages. To paraphrase the Jewish sages, Jerusalem was destroyed only because schoolchildren there were interrupted from studying Torah.
I was reminded of my teacher Rachel Alper, who despite being an ardent socialist, crossed the picket line and made us attend class. We hated her for it, because we were the only ones who would not get a day off to play in the schoolyard, but Alper would just slam the door shut and announce, "There is no teachers strike in the Jewish state."
That's why Lieberman's main test is not just in how much he would be willing to pay a teacher but whether he could set up a new mechanism that would reward teachers based on their merit. If that is accomplished, then the ugly battle will have been worth it.
The teachers who excel at their jobs are those whose students will choose to take up A-level math or other highly demanding majors. The path to closing the socioeconomic disparities and leveling the playing field is not just about tackling ethnic-based discrimination of the past but about lunging forward.
Teachers would excel if they insist that alongside drilling down their subject matter on math and sciences, they introduce youngsters to civilization's classics, including by rote memorization of famous poems and biblical verses.
They should be rewarded for this, and we would all benefit from this if we get a generation that would embrace its heritage alongside modernity without diluting the affinity to the land and no longer celebrating relocation away from Israel.
You may say I am a dreamer who is too naive. But while you can't turn back the clock, you can definitely turn it forward until you reach your destination. Just like when the IDF's ethos of equality was enhanced by opening up positions for women, so too will the teachers' status be greatly improved by having them paid based on merit.
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