Romanian Senate adopts bill on public financing for accredited private schools

Romania’s Senate adopted Tuesday a bill according to which accredited private pre-university education units would be financed mainly from the state and local budgets. The bill amending Education Law 84/1995 was adopted with 82 votes for, six against and four abstentions. It was adopted tacitly in the Chamber of Deputies. According to the bill, accredited private pre-university compulsory education units will be financed from the state budget, from the local budget of the administrative units to which they belong, and from other sources. The units will be allotted funds according to the number of pupils, the standard cost per pupil, student density in the area, severity of social disadvantage, teaching language and other factors. The Senate's committee for education matters initially proposed rejecting the bill, arguing that the Government has adopted a new draft law on Education, which is currently debated by the committee. The Senate threw out the committee's report and adopted the bill as put forward by its sponsors. Mediafax