Judge: 'A child, is a child, is a child'

High Court tells state to launch speedy probe into underfunding of secular public schools

Petition says religious state schools receive higher share of funds than secular and Arab-sector schools; Education Ministry acknowledges gap but disputes discrimination

The High Court of Justice ordered the Education Ministry on Monday to launch a speedy investigation into the division of funds between secular and religious educational institutions, after hearing a petition alleging that secular schools were being financially discriminated against in favor of religious ones.

Israel’s public education system includes four categories of state schools: secular, religious, ultra-Orthodox, and Arab sector. The petition, filed by several educational and social organizations and lawmakers Gilad Kariv (The Democrats) and Vladimir Beliak (Yesh Atid), alleged that the Education Ministry has allocated a significantly higher budget to religious state schools in comparison to secular and Arab state schools.

The Education Ministry, for its part, acknowledged the funding gap in its preliminary response to the High Court last week, according to the Haaretz daily, and said that the matter required examining “in light of the needs and characteristics” of all state-funded institutions.

According to Haaretz, the state claimed that the funding gaps were partially due to the need for religious schools to employ teachers for both religious and secular studies.

Religious state schools receive around 28 percent more money annually than secular schools, and around 37% more than Arab schools, the report noted.

The state said, however, that its investigation would take some time, and asked the High Court to grant it until the end of December 2026 to conduct the review and then implement its findings for the start of the 2027-2028 academic year.

This would mean that, despite acknowledging the issue, the Education Ministry would be leaving secular and Arab state schools underfunded in the upcoming academic year, which starts in September.

The high court panel, comprised of justices Yael Willner, Ofer Grosskopf, and Alex Stein, took issue with this suggestion during the hearing on Monday, saying it was unacceptable to wait that long on “such a valuable and important issue as children’s education.”

Instead, the court said it would set a new deadline for the state to conclude its investigation into the issue.

While acknowledging the gaps in funding, the representative for the state argued to the court that the matter was “not necessarily” discriminatory in nature, as it could be due to the different needs of religious and secular populations.

“This doesn’t necessarily mean that a religious student is better served,” he said, according to Haaretz, only that there are different things to consider, “such as preparation for meaningful service in religious education.”

Grosskopf appeared unconvinced by this argument, telling the state representative that such issues were “not unique to religious students.”

“I would expect that secular students also receive preparation for meaningful military service,” he said.

Furthermore, the state representative told the court that some of the funds granted to religious schools were not from the Education Ministry but from coalition funds, meaning from money allocated in the budget-planning process based on agreements struck between the parties during coalition negotiations over the formation of the government.

This, too, drew criticism from the judges, with Willner insisting that funding must be allocated “based on procedures and regulations.”

“The fact that a specific community has certain political power doesn’t change that,” she added, in quotes carried by Calcalist. “A child is a child is a child.”

The court’s decision to move up the timeline for the investigation was welcomed by the petitioners, despite no new date having immediately been set.

“The court made it clear today that the inherent gaps in the education system can no longer be ignored,” said the director of the National Parents Leadership.