Education Minister Yoav Kisch (Likud) presented to the Knesset Education Committee on Wednesday new regulations intended to enable salary raises for thousands of teachers in the two major haredi elementary school systems despite not having reached agreements with the Finance and Justice ministries on a number of key issues.

Kisch announced the new regulations in a press briefing on Sunday and then presented them to the committee on Wednesday as part of a comprehensive discussion on the Education Ministry’s preparedness for the upcoming school year.

The regulations determine the manner in which teachers in the two haredi systems expect to join a salary agreement called Ofek Hadash (New Horizons), which began in the public school system in 2008.

Ofek Hadash determined teachers’ salaries based on their level of academic and professional training. It also introduced non-frontal teaching, such as paid one-on-one lessons, and set standards for schools’ infrastructure and teaching environments.

The two haredi school systems are Bnei Yosef, which is associated with the Shas Party, and Hinuch Hatzma’i (Independent Education), which is associated with the Degel Hatorah Party, a faction within United Torah Judaism that represents Lithuanian haredim (non-hassidic Ashkenazim). They are considered semiprivate and are fully funded by the state. They are required to teach a core curriculum that includes English, Hebrew, science, and more, but are privately run while being subject to Education Ministry oversight.

Ultra orthodox jewish kids seen the first day of school at an Ultra-Orthodox school in Neve Yaakov Neighborhood of Jerusalem on August 9, 2021. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
Ultra orthodox jewish kids seen the first day of school at an Ultra-Orthodox school in Neve Yaakov Neighborhood of Jerusalem on August 9, 2021. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
The two systems exist alongside the haredi public school system, which is state owned and run and functions fully as part of Israel’s public school system, similar to religious-Zionist public schools.

Parallel to the semi-private systems entering Ofek Hadash, the haredi public school system will enjoy a significant increase in schools in the upcoming school year, Kisch said during the briefing. These include 7,000 students in 25 new schools and 30 new preschools, he said.

Critics have argued that the two semi-private systems receive state funding despite not actually meeting the requirements, and that the oversight is ineffective.

Kisch said the new regulations would solve these problems by requiring that the schools have trained teachers teach the full core curriculum based on Education Ministry standards, present a yearly plan for study based on clearly defined standards, provide the ministry with information regarding all of their staff and professional background, “open their gates to close ministry oversight,” and use standardized national and international tests to gage progress.

The regulations also determine that schools that do not meet criteria will be removed for the remainder of the school year, and that the ministry may block schools from entering the program if it could cause financial harm to the public school system. As part of Ofek Hadash, the teachers will also undergo periodic training to enable them to develop professionally and increase their salary.

The move will cost the state approximately NIS 600 million, which will come from coalition funds earmarked for this purpose in coalition agreements between the Likud and the haredi parties.

Justice and Finance Ministry officials pointed to several clauses as problematic.

Officials from the Justice and Finance ministries cited a number of clauses as problematic. The main one was that since the school systems currently do not have enough teachers with necessary training to meet Ofek Hadash demands, a four-year interim period would apply whereby teachers will receive benefits while undergoing training, and that if the schools do not manage to reach Ofek Hadash standards in four years, funding they receive beginning in the upcoming school year will be rescinded retroactively.

The officials said this essentially has enabled the haredi systems to receive the Ofek Hadash benefits without meeting the full core curriculum standard for the next four years. Rather than enable this, the schools should only be allowed to enter the program after they have met the standards, they said.

Furthermore, Hinuch Hatzma’i has a debt of at least NIS 80 million to the Israel Tax Authority, is facing six class-action suits over alleged violations of employees’ rights, and is fighting against a court appeal to deem it bankrupt.

Ofek Hadash would essentially grant the system an estimated 30% raise in state funding even though it is in financial straits and already owes the state an enormous sum, the officials said.

“The systems need to appoint a manager who ensures that they act appropriately."

According to Deputy Knesset Speaker Moshe Tur-Paz (Yesh Atid), who is a member of the Knesset Education Committee and a former educator, “Kisch’s regulations are a sham whose purpose is to render kosher an institution that has been proven to have many problems. The idea to give to systems that have cheated the State of Israel for years, have not supplied the required core curriculum, and have harmed the education of haredi children is a prize for a criminal. The systems need to appoint a manager who ensures that they act appropriately. If Kisch wants to care for the systems, the time has come for him to fix them and get them a budget raise.”

Deputy Education Minister Haim Biton (Shas), who is responsible for the haredi school systems, has been acting on behalf of the two major systems, as has Knesset Education Committee chairman Yosef Taieb (Shas).

Kisch has said Biton opposed his regulations, and that this proved that the regulations would cause real change. Tur-Paz has said he was sure that the argument was staged so that Kisch can repeat this argument in a future possible court case against the regulations.

The Education Ministry said in response to a query: “We are confident and sure that the proposed regulations give the proper solution to all of the comments that were raised during talks with the Finance and Justice [ministries] – a move that received the blessing of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

“There is a historic opportunity here, the first of its kind, to enter tens of thousands of haredi students into the circle of 100% core curriculum studies, with all of the accompanying economic benefits. This is without giving up on any standard set by the public system, including the Meitzav [standardized national test] and teacher training.

“It is important to haredi society and imperative to Israeli society. Furthermore, this process accelerates an accompanying process that will, according to our estimates, enter tens of thousands more students into the public haredi system, meaning frameworks fully owned by the ministry. The education minister is dedicated to this and acting on it,” the Education Ministry said.