B’Yachad has done its homework on fixing our schools

It may be cliché to say that education is a cornerstone of Israel’s economy and security and the keystone for our future. But what makes any cliché a cliché is that it’s true. The fundamental problem with education in Israel today is that we’re educating our kids for the 21st century in a system built in 1948. Fixing this doesn’t require “reform” – it requires tearing down what’s broken and rebuilding it the right way from the ground up. This is certainly beyond the capability of a government like this one that once even simply shut down the Knesset Education Committee for weeks and weeks for petty political reasons. But with a real plan like the one that Naftali Bennett has shaped with leading experts in the field over the past two years, it is possible.

Our kids’ success begins in early childhood education. Here, we not only need to uphold higher standards: today, 75% of toddlers are in unregulated frameworks. We also need to ensure access and affordability, especially for working families and families of those who serve. They should be first in line to receive subsidies – not families where the parents neither work nor enlist.

As a former administrator of Jerusalem’s schools, I know better than anyone that the Education Ministry bureaucracy is broken. Too many decisions are made by bureaucrats with no connection to what’s going on in schools and communities. This must change. The Education Ministry needs to be a fiercer regulator, closely ensuring standards are met, particularly when it comes to the teaching of core subjects in ultra-Orthodox schools. This is an area in which I have worked extensively, including at the Supreme Court, to ensure proper supervision. But at the same time, the ministry needs to get out of the implementation and execution business and leave that to local officials, principals and teachers who currently have little power but know their communities and students best.

This can be done through two steps. From a regulatory perspective, it’s not just about restructuring and streamlining the ministry, but implementing a 60-40 formula: the state must set firm standards for 60% of curriculum hours, ensuring core education standards are met, while administrators will have flexibility with the remaining 40% to best meet the needs of their own students. Second, this type of approach must also be adopted when it comes to budgeting, with funding being allocated based on meeting students’ needs rather than the archaic current formula, which is rooted in instructional hours by subject regardless of whether students’ needs are actually being met.

Of course, we cannot discuss education in Israel without addressing the national crisis that is ultra-Orthodox education. An entire generation of kids is being raised without tools to support themselves and without any connection to our shared Israeli story. For years, I’ve worked on frameworks for ultra-Orthodox integration, and that work has taught me that carrots will only get you so far. Solving this problem once and for all will require a firm but simple stick: educational institutions that aren’t Zionist and don’t comply with state standards on teaching core subjects won’t get a single shekel from the state. Instead, we will take that money and invest it in just like there are Mamlachti and Mamlachti-Dati schools – in Mamlachti-Haredi schools. Today, these schools that follow state standards only teach 7% of ultra-Orthodox students. If we make them a better option and cut off funding for unregulated alternatives that are often controlled by ultra-Orthodox political parties, we’ll be able to put an entire generation of ultra-Orthodox kids into an educational pipeline that paves a path towards enlistment and the workforce while respecting their identity. Just as Mamlachti and Mamlachti-Dati schools do for so many.

But no matter the school system, having the best possible teachers in our classrooms is ultimately make-or-break for all our kids. Making this happen means spending money on bringing subject-matter experts into the profession and providing incentives for the best teachers to stay. But it also means addressing causes of attrition that lead good teachers to leave. In recent years, the teaching profession hasn’t just remained underpaid and disrespected: it has become sometimes dangerous. The number of inquiries I receive as a member of Knesset from the public about a school in which bullying or violence runs amok, and intervention is needed… it’s out of control.

Among the changes we need to make is insisting on better values education. Right now, our schools aren’t just failing to teach material – they’re failing to impart values, and part of this is a result of having too much on our teachers’ plates. When it comes to instruction, technological tools – including AI – have tremendous promise if instituted properly and responsibly to support teachers on that front. That will free up more of their time for what only a good teacher can do: imparting values and life skills. We need to make this a more central part of our teachers’ roles and our curriculum in general. And as our kids prepare to head out into the real world, turning 12th grade into a year focused on personal growth and preparation for military or national service will have a similar positive effect.

During the last two years, Naftali Bennett has done his homework – preparing a detailed plan to repair Israel’s education system that contains all these ideas and more. Both as a parent and an elected official, the success of such a plan ultimately must be measured in real results. For us, that means three tangible, measurable outcomes. Have we successfully repaired structural deficiencies in the education system? Success here means 70% of decisions being made locally by administrators and localities rather than centrally, as is true in most developed countries. Are our kids better prepared for higher education and the workforce? This will be reflected in better results on international assessments. And are all of our students educated to be part of our shared Israeli story? That will have succeeded if 90% of ultra-Orthodox students are in state-run and regulated education systems. With these steps, B’Yachad, we’ll fix what’s broken and get Israel’s education system back on track.