A true story: When the eldest daughter of an Israeli family turned one, her parents enrolled her in a private daycare facility near their home in one of Israel’s peripheral cities. They paid NIS 2,100 a month for a daycare center that operated from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., which seemed fair enough.
Eight years later, the family registered their youngest son in the same daycare, but the conditions had changed for the worse: Daycare activity hours were shortened to 4 p.m., and the cost had surged to NIS 3,500 a month – a dramatic 66% increase.
Looking back, it was a moment filled with hope. On April 30, 2023, the prime minister, alongside the ministers of education and finance, presented a new national plan. The promise: full subsidies for regulated daycare centers, which would result in a reduction in the cost of living for younger families in Israel through subsidized daycare centers, and a NIS 940 monthly allowance for families with children aged 0-3 The reform cost NIS 5.3 billion.
But in reality, the state had de facto abandoned these young families.
Change: A national necessity
Before the reform, in September 2019 a Daycare Supervision Law was implemented, imposing a series of guidelines and requirements on private daycare centers with seven or more children in attendance.
“As a result of this, my expenses have increased significantly,” the daycare owner explained to the aforementioned Israeli family. “I am now required to meet stringent safety standards, submit reports, and comply with strict regulations from the Ministry of Labor and Welfare. And it all costs a lot of money.”
This additional cost is passed on to the Israeli family, who now pay almost double what they did eight years ago.
This issue affects tens of thousands of young families across Israel. The standards imposed by the state on private daycare centers, though justified, increase operating costs, turning what was once a common service into a luxury that many struggle to afford.
In some parts of central Israel, the monthly daycare fee can reach a monthly NIS 6,000 or more – a sum that makes it increasingly difficult for mothers to go out to work.
Currently, 40% of children aged 0-3 in Israel do not attend any childcare facility. The mother or grandmother often becomes the main caregiver during daytime working hours, hindering the national economy. What’s worse, middle-class secular families are discouraged from having a third or fourth child due to the cost of early childhood education.
In addition, in Israel children aged 0–4 constitute 10.3% of the population (compared to the OECD average of 5.8%), and it has long been accepted that an educational institution is not merely a place to supervise children but one where they are educated and have their character shaped for the future.
The inverted pyramid theory suggests that investment in the early years of a child is both necessary and profitable; therefore, in this spirit, in 2022 the early childhood education in Israel moved from the responsibility of the Ministry of Labor to that of the Ministry of Education. But this transition (which was not fully completed, with the responsibility still divided among three different ministries) has not been sufficient to change reality. Even after the transition, daycares are still priced as babysitting centers.
Reform with gaps
The reform aimed to address these issues with a NIS 5.3-billion budget – enough to transform the sector. However, the reform, presented with much theatricality, lacked strategic, long-term planning.
The first indication of insincerity was the announcement of a one-time investment without a commitment to ongoing funding. Addressing such a deep-rooted issue requires continuous investment for staff training, wage increases, and facility maintenance – among other things – and not a one-time campaign.
Moreover, the plan overlooked the primary problem: the shortage of caregivers. Currently, there are approximately 3,000 unfilled caregiver positions. According to the State Comptroller’s report, almost half of newly recruited caregivers leave the job within the first month due to difficult working conditions.
This shortage impacts both private and regulated daycare centers, resulting in a 20% churn rate in the number of children enrolled in subsidized centers over the past five years.
Any solution to the early childhood education problem must include substantial, multi-year investment in the workforce and rebranding the profession in order to elevate the status of caregivers. However, this would require a long-term budget commitment, and the Ministry of Finance is unwilling to make such a promise.
In an evolving world such as ours, which creates automated solutions for many different types of jobs, eliminates roles like cashiers and operators, and shuts down businesses in favor of virtual ones, while establishing online services that replace human providers, this may be an opportunity to channel workers into the education field while embedding a public perception of the caregiver’s role as one that significantly influences a child’s future.
However, the reform turns a blind eye to the profession and lets the free market – and the regulated daycare networks – do the work of recruiting, training, enhancing, and improving the prestige of the profession.
The result is clear: The shortage of caregivers leads to fewer active supervised daycare centers, a lower professional standard among the workforce, and a higher fee to pay for private daycares. This culminates in a depressing bottom line: Our youngest are getting much less than they deserve.
In response to this lacuna, and to offer a possible solution for the long term, WIZO initiated a bachelor’s degree program in early childhood education in collaboration with the Levinsky-Wingate Academic Center.
The program, tailored for women working in WIZO daycare centers, aims to strengthen the workforce, equip staff with professional and pedagogical skills, and elevate the profession. This is a crucial step toward prioritizing investment in early childhood education to reflect its importance as a true national strategic concern, in order to avert undermining Israel’s very future and security moving forward.Bleak numbers
More than two years after the reform’s announcement, where do we currently stand?
According to a study by the Adva Center, Israel invests $5,864 per child annually in early childhood education, compared to an OECD average of $12,750 – a shocking 54% gap.
However, OECD data reveals a much starker contrast: in 2018, the public expenditure per child in Israel was $2,713, compared to the OECD average of $12,400.
In the most recent OECD review from January 2025, Israel ranked last among developed countries, with public expenditure per child estimated at $450 annually, compared to the OECD average of $8,300 – a gap of 1,744%.
At the moment, only a quarter of Israeli children benefit from subsidized care in supervised institutions, 35% attend private daycare, and 40% remain at home with their caregivers.
The ultimate conclusion is clear: Not only was there no progress toward a solution, but there is a deterioration in the opposite direction. In 2022, the budget for early childhood education (ages 0–3) in Israel was NIS 1.7 billion, equivalent to NIS 3,000 per child.
In 2024, a year after the reform was announced, a NIS 300 million cut was made in the education budget, two-thirds of it – NIS 200 million – cut from the early childhood education budget, further contributing to the development of the crisis.
A solution with a price tag – but no one to pay it
The main issue is the state’s refusal to finance a real solution. The government continues to choose to place the financial burden on families and the regulated daycare centers, leaving nearly half of the country’s children without a viable, structured daycare option.
We, at the regulated daycare networks, recognized the problem immediately after the reform was announced. We urgently appealed to all relevant authorities, but to no avail.
The real tragedy is that besides us, no one is fighting to address the crisis and make it a national priority.Israel excels gimmicks, headlines, and political promises. But early childhood education is too important to be reduced to a campaign slogan.
The neglect of this sector will not lead to roadblocks on the Ayalon Highway or tire-burning protests outside the Knesset. It is not a political threat in the current government’s term. And that, apparently, is all that matters.
Our commitment to finding a solution for this strategic threat to the country’s future remains firm. We will not stop working toward a sustainable, long-lasting plan that will ensure that Israel’s youngest receive the education and attention they deserve – for the sake of us all.■
The writer is chairperson of World WIZO, the Women’s International Zionist Organization.