The recent dollar devaluation has created a deficit in the ORT budget for its overseas educational and vocational training operations of such massive proportions as to threaten the survival of a number of its programs, it was reported at an emergency meeting of the American ORT national executive committee.
Dr. William Haber, president, warned committee members that “for the first time in almost 25 years, ORT will have to curtail some of its programs, and even deny educational opportunity to youth in hardship areas because of lack of funds. As matters now stand, this cruel choice seems imminent. ORT has been caught in an implacable financial nutcracker, of which one lever is inflation and rising school costs and the other, the one that broke the camel’s back, is the latest ten percent devaluation of the dollar,” Dr. Haber stated. He said “Together these two factors have opened a hemorrhage which we can only bring under control by sacrificing service programs.”
He estimated the two-pronged deficit at $820,000 for 1973 and projected a deficit of about $1,200,000 in 1974. The dollar devaluation alone will cost ORT between $520,000 and $550,000 this year, he declared. About 70,000 students are enrolled in ORT vocational and technical schools in 21 countries.
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