Israeli gov't promises free early education but falls short in execution

Following a brief and self-congratulatory press conference held by top ministers, it appears as though the government is falling short of making good on its promise to provide free early-childhood education.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Education Minister Yoav Kisch presented the first phase of their three-phase program for free education for children aged zero to three on Sunday night, explaining that as of January 2024, parents will receive up to NIS 940 for each child between the ages of zero and three.

In addition, Netanyahu promised that the children in government-supervised daycares will receive a full subsidy, and that the number of supervised daycares will increase significantly.

The government's goals

“Our program has three main goals – the first is to lower the cost of living. The second is education. We want and know that by upgrading the educational system in these daycare centers, we can improve the quality of the education these children receive. The third thing is to expand this system to allow supervised daycare for all working families in Israel,” said Netanyahu.

Free schooling for children aged zero to three was one of the Likud’s central campaign promises, and while the program was touted as “fulfilling a campaign promise,” it actually will only provide reduced costs to approximately 25% of children in the public daycare systems, which currently suffer from severe manpower shortages.

Smotrich said that after “much deliberation,” he, Netanyahu and Kisch decided not to “nationalize” the private daycare centers – but the manpower shortage in public daycare means that in the foreseeable future, they will not have a realistic option of moving their children to the public system, and thus will not have a real option for government-funded daycare.

Smotrich touted the measure as a “historic decision” made in response to the rising cost of living, which has steadily risen for over a year.

“We are now making a historic decision that is a direct response to the cost of living for parents of children aged zero to three by providing credit points and negative income tax, in addition to increasing the subsidy for supervised daycare centers,” he said. “At the same time, the government will invest considerable resources in improving the quality of the educational response in supervised and private frameworks, in order to improve the quality of early childhood education for all Israeli children.”

Smotrich noted that future benefits of the plan include further increased subsidies for toddlers, a “perseverance grant” for caregivers, a change in operating hours to improve the conditions of employment of caregivers compared to kindergartens aged three to six, a NIS 200 million investment in the pedagogical system in the Education Ministry and budgeting and expanding the training of caregivers.

The finance minister touted the achievements of the current administration in its four-month tenure.

“Just today, I signed orders that will prevent the increase in gas prices. We’ve reduced electricity and water prices, eliminated tariffs on a range of consumer goods, added tax credits, signed a historic agreement with the Histadrut [labor federation], and as mentioned now, we will also help many parents of children aged zero to three save thousands of shekels every month on education in daycare centers. We will soon pass a responsible state budget and an arrangements law with many reforms that will further help reduce the cost of living,” he said.

“A deep problem for 20 years has no magic solution in one day or even in four months, so a series of steps must be taken and be persistent. The media is trying to conceal our work and claim that nothing has been done, but the public is smarter and sees the money,” he added.