The Sources of Budget Gaps in the Official Primary Education System

A new study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel examines the reasons behind the gaps in class and per-student budgets in the Official primary education system — specifically between secular Hebrew State education, State-religious education, and Arab State education — between 2014 and 2023.

The study investigated the main factors influencing school funding, including the school’s Nurture Index, school size, long school days, and the existence of separate classes for students with special needs, and assessed how much these factors contribute to the differences in funding among schools in various sectors and with different supervisory authorities.

The Nurture Index: This index ranks schools according to the average socioeconomic level of their student population. The higher the Nurture Index — that is, the more disadvantaged the population — the greater the allocation per class and per student. During the period studied, the socioeconomic status of the religious population in Israel improved relative to other populations, and since most of its children attend State-religious schools, this process worked to reduce the funding allocation for State-religious education and narrow the budget gap between it and Hebrew State education.

School size: The smaller the school, the higher the allocation per class — and even more so per student. This is because larger institutions tend to have classes with a greater average number of students; since the funding system primarily bases the budget on the number of classes rather than the number of students, the per-student allocation is higher in smaller schools. The study also shows that during the period studied there was a significant reduction in the number of students per class, and today there are almost no classes with more than 36 students, and very few classes with between 32 and 36 students.

Special education: In general, the mere existence of separate classes for special education does not significantly increase the average allocation per class compared to schools without such classes. However, due to the smaller number of students in special education classes, the per-student allocation increases significantly.

Long school day: A school’s participation in the long school day program provides it with a substantial increase in teachers’ working hours, which translates into higher funding both per class and per student. The long school day is primarily implemented in schools with a high Nurture Index.

Sector and supervisory authority: The impact of this factor is mainly reflected in the addition of prayer hours and rabbinical hours in State-religious education, as well as extra hours in Arab State education through Five-Year Development programs designed, among other things, to strengthen education in that sector.

Despite the narrowing of gaps, Arab State education continues to receive less funding than does Hebrew education, while State-religious education is allocated a higher budget than other parts of the system.

According to the study’s findings, during the examined period the disparities between sectors and supervisory authorities have narrowed. The multivariate analysis shows that:

• The gap in funding per class between Hebrew State education and State-religious education narrowed from approximately 5% at the beginning of the period to less than 2% in recent years, and in terms of per-student funding it shrank from around 9% to less than 3%.
• The gap between State-religious education and Arab State education in funding per class decreased until 2021, but then reverted to its initial level, while the per-student funding gap narrowed from about 15% to roughly 12%.