In 2005 and 2006, the government
withheld several billion forints of subsidies from schools operated
by religious organisations, the daily Nepszabadsag reported on
Wednesday, quoting a report by Hungary’s state audit office (ASZ).
According to the ASZ report, church-run schools received 2.7
billion forints (10.8m euros) less in subsidies than they were
entitled to under law in those two years, the paper said. The report
adds, however, that the government’s methodology of calculating
subsidies is different from ASZ’s interpretation of the law.
Balint Magyar, education minister at the time insists that
children going to ecclesiastical schools in fact received higher
subsidies than those enrolled in state-run schools. Differences in
funding arise from an ambiguity in the government’s financing
responsibilities, but "nowhere in Europe do religious schools
receive as much central funding as in Hungary," the former minister
told the paper.
