Congress soon will be asked to enact legislation, for joint American-Israeli research and other activities regarding education for disadvantaged children. Sen. Walter Mondale (D. Minn.) said today. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he will introduce legislation during the next few weeks as a part of the bill for the Agency for International Development to encompass that purpose. He recently made a six-day visit to Israel, his first to that country. Mondale is the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Youth.
Under his proposal. Mondale said, he envisions the establishment of a joint governing board of leading American and Israeli social scientists in the field of the socially disadvantaged. The scientists, selected by the two governments, would prepare a program that would include annual or semi-annual conferences with the sites alternating in the two countries; a modest secretariate; the development of research; exchanges of information by means of lectures; and possibly a journal to which social scientists of the two countries would contribute. He thought the annual budget for the project would be under $5 million to be appropriated by the United States.
ISRAEL LEADS IN PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION
“I was enormously struck by the similarities,” of the problems regarding education of the disadvantaged in Israel and the U.S., he said. He observed that “our country makes a mistake in not getting into pre-school education” in this field, noting that “Israel leads the world in this respect.”
Asian and African Jews came to Israel burdened with social disadvantages, he said. Gaps exist in the basic achievement levels between the children of these immigrants and others in Israel. “Israel is more committed than we are in reducing those gaps,” he said. “They are getting to the very young–to children in the third and fourth year of life.” He spoke of Israel’s support of poor families with special allowances for children.
Mondale said he was impressed by the “openness” of the Israeli schools, particularly those in poorer communities. “Kids come from all over the community to their school for a study hour. There are tutors there and the kids can do their homework in the school, something we ought to do in schools in our poorer neighborhoods.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
