The various organizations that operate state-supervised daycare centers for preschoolers are disappointed with the process of transferring the organizations to the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, and see it as a failure, after it did not provide a solution to the economic problems that the daycare centers face. This frustration is what is behind the demand of the Haredi United Torah Judaism party (UTJ) in the coalition negotiations to remove the daycare centers from the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and return them to the responsibility of the Directorate General of Labor of the Ministry of Economy, as was the case until January of this year.
This means that the demand presented by the chairman of UTJ, Rabbi Yitzhak Goldknopf, to cancel the transfer of daycare centers to the Ministry of Education is based on a shared sense of frustration among all of the daycare providers, not just the Haredi ones. However, different organizations within this field have different positions regarding the desired solution to their problems.
“There is complete chaos”
The forum of organizations operating state-supervised daycare centers, which includes Naamat, WIZO, Emunah, Neot Margalit, the Herut Women’s Organization and a host of other organizations, told Davar that they were not interested in moving the responsibilities for daycare centers from one ministry to another, but in establishing an integrated governmental body for early childhood education. "The forum demands the establishment of a national authority for early childhood development because the transition of responsibilities to the Ministry of Education has failed," the forum said. "At the moment, we receive our budgets from the Ministry of Economy, tuition fees from the Price Committee in the Ministry of Finance, and our supervision and pedagogy from the Ministry of Education. There is complete chaos. We see the transition to the Ministry of Education at this stage as a failure. We want an independent authority that will integrate everything."
The demand to transfer responsibility for daycare centers to the Ministry of Education has been raised for many years on the grounds that the daycare centers are a poor fit for the Directorate General of Labor of the Ministry of Economy, whose core function is the regulation and supervision of the labor market, as opposed to the possibility of creating an educational continuum from birth to university under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education.
Increased supervision without increased budgets or staffing
Last January, the Bennett-Lapid government approved the transfer of daycare centers to the Ministry of Education, and it was accompanied by a number of immediate moves to strengthen the supervision of activities of the daycare centers, including increasing the number of supervisors of daycare centers, providing pedagogical supervision, training and continuing education programs for caregivers, and the appointment of early childhood education directors in local authorities. At the same time, Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton pledged to increase the standard ratio of caregivers to children, meaning that the number of children per caregiver would decrease.
State-supervised daycare centers care for about 120,000 infants and toddlers, constituting about a quarter of all Israeli children up to the age of three. The most critical problem they face is their budgeting. The price that daycare centers are allowed to charge parents is set by the government, through a joint committee of the Ministries of Finance and Economy (and, as of last January, the Ministry of Education as well). For more than a year now, organizations have been crying out that the price formula has not been updated for a decade, which prevents them from raising the salaries of caregivers and creates a severe personnel crisis, making it difficult to meet current expenses.
Following a struggle led by the organizations last October, which also included a strike, it was agreed that the Price Committee would reconvene and review the price increase. In practice, the committee convened and recommended an increase in the price, but its recommendations have not yet been approved. This is due to childcare organizations, alongside the Ministry of Education, demanding that the price increase not be imposed on the parents, but rather that the government reach into its pockets and subsidize it, as part of the subsidies that already exist today for state-supervised daycare centers totalling about 1 billion shekels (nearly $300 million), and which are given according to eligibility criteria that prioritize low-income working parents and welfare recipients.
Responsibility for the subsidies lies with the Ministries of Economy and Finance, and so far the demand for increased subsidization has not been accepted, so in practice the personnel crisis continues and the organizations are struggling to survive financially. Last month, they petitioned the Supreme Court of Israel to implement the price increases.
The promise to increase the ratio of caregivers to children has also not been implemented. Increasing the caregiver ratio would require hiring more staff, which would lead to a further price increase. This potential price hike was reviewed by the Price Committee, but due to the controversy over the subsidies, it was not implemented. In any case, without a significant increase in wages, the daycare centers continue to struggle to meet even the existing standards.
The most significant achievement following the reform is the strengthening of the daycare supervision system, following a series of cases of abuse of toddlers in recent years. Organizations that are struggling with the phenomenon of abuse have expressed concern that the removal of daycare centers from the Ministry of Education will weaken their supervision. However, the legal basis for supervision is not related to the responsibility of the Ministry of Education. The law requiring the installation of cameras in daycare centers, and the definitions of minimum threshold conditions for daycare centers began even before the transition to the Ministry of Education. They exist by virtue of laws enacted by the Knesset, so formally, the government is obliged to implement them in any case.
Private daycare centers are also in trouble
In addition to state-supervised daycare providers, private daycare centers are also in a state of distress that has only become more severe since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Daycare center owners have been forced to bear most of the expenses resulting from a series of new laws tightening the supervision of daycare centers, including obliging them to install cameras. This is in addition to the economic damage caused by the long lockdowns. According to the chairman of the private daycare providers’ organization, many private daycare centers are in danger of closing due to the lack of economic viability in operating them.
Switching ministries does not guarantee a solution
In any case, it is clear to all parties that the transfer of responsibilities between ministries is not what solved or will solve the in-depth problems of the early childhood education system in Israel. Attention is required to the needs on the ground, in order to prevent daycare centers from collapsing, and this is exactly what did not happen in the past year when the centers were under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education. Of course, this also has something to do with the interim government, but even before the announcement of the elections, the government did not seem too eager to deal with this issue.
This is also the time to remind Prime Minister-designate Netanyahu of his election promise of free education from birth in Israel. Its implementation, at a cost of billions of shekels, is much more important than the name of the government ministry that will be responsible for it.
This article was translated from Hebrew by Benji Sharp.
