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December 20 • 2007

JN

Tel Aviv

S

triking high school teachers
and the Israeli government
may have finally reached a
deal to reopen the schools, but the
extent of the protracted work stoppage
has exposed the depth of a crisis in the
country' public education system that is
far from abating.
Before the Dec. 13 agreement, the
teachers had been on strike for more
than two months, leaving Israeli teen-
agers spending most of their autumn
hanging out at malls rather than study-
ing in classrooms.
Struggling under the weight of over-
crowded classes and a workforce of dis-
gruntled teachers who earn an average
of $1,500 per month, the Israeli educa-
tion system is failing parents, students
and teachers, many Israelis say.
Some parents who can are aban-
doning the system altogether, turning
to private schools where possible.
Teachers, in search of better pay, are
leaving, too. Those who remain are pay-
ing the price, parents and teachers say.
"Middle schools are a total disaster','
said Sharon Tischler, one of a group
of parents who helped found a private
middle school and high school in
Ra'anana five years ago.
The school, called Neitarim, focuses
on pluralistic education and brings
together religious and secular students.
"In this country, education is straight
from the book;' Tischler said. Students
"don't learn to write or analyze; it's a
joke. High school is totally focused
on matriculation exams and provides
some substance, but there is no breadth
of education."

Runaway Learning
The signs that the Israeli public educa-
tion system is in crisis abound. Israel
ranks toward the bottom of the list of
Western nations in international edu-
cation assessments. The same assess-
ments also show that among developed
nations, Israel has the widest disparity
in academic achievement between
wealthy and poor students.
A poll of 2,000 Israelis published by
Israel 2020, a new social action forum,
showed that education tops the list of

Allied Member ASID

A18

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

national problems young Israelis want
to see addressed.
Middle-class and upper-middle-class
parents of children in public schools
commonly send their kids to after-
school tutors to ensure they receive the
one-on-one attention and enrichment
that is absent from their regular school
day.
A growing number of parents are
seeking refuge from the public school
system in private schools. This has only
exacerbated problems in the public
system, some argue, because many pri-
vate schools in Israel also receive gov-
ernment funding and therefore drain
resources from the public schools.
At the Neitarim School, parents pay
a portion of tuition costs — about
$250 a month, considered a signifi-
cant but not exorbitant sum in Israel
— and the government pays a portion.
Scholarships are available.
Judith Butler, an education professor
at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
says the movement toward parents
subsidizing their children's education
through such schools is distressing. She
says it widens the socioeconomic gap
by favoring well-to-do families over
those who cannot afford the tuition and
takes pressure off the government to
save the public school system.
"Private schools are obvious solu-
tions for the privileged, but they are not
a solution and are also a great disad-
vantage for the non-privileged',' Butler
said. "I think one of the messages of
both the teachers' strike and our strike,"
she said, referring to an ongoing strike
of university professors, "is about
reinforcing and strengthening public
education."

Push To Privatize?

Ha'aretz columnist Avirama Golan says
the government's neglect of the educa-
tion system is so bad it may be part
of a plan to push the system toward at
least partial privatization.
"For years, students and parents have
been abandoned to an ailing educa-
tion system incapable of functioning,"
Golan wrote. "The abandonment is so
stark that one sometimes suspects it is
intentional."
The semi-private schools, which
include many religious schools, she
wrote, "are flourishing thanks to fund-
ing that comes partly from the govern-
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