Israel’s Education System Is in Crisis – Choices We Make Now Will Shape Its Future

In the past week Israeli schools have undergone a series of teachers strikes. The triger was pay cuts enforced by Israeli government on all public service sectors. Parents, students, and educators across Israel feel it daily: the sense of collapse in the public education system. This is not just a shortage of teachers or a drop in student performance—it is a deep, multifaceted crisis that reflects both global challenges and Israel-specific decisions that undermine the foundations of our democracy.

While the world grapples with the effects of digital transformation, social media, and artificial intelligence on young minds and traditional schooling models, Israel faces an added, more acute dilemma: a political choice that privileges sectorial education systems over the public, non-religious state education system. This choice is starving the latter of both resources and a sense of mission.

This year, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported a 22% drop in the number of new teachers entering the education system—a dramatic fall. But an equally alarming figure has gone largely unnoticed: a 12.2% rise in teacher attrition in the Hebrew-speaking public system. These numbers are two sides of the same coin. Veteran teachers—burnt out, disillusioned, and lacking support—are the very people who shape how the next generation views the teaching profession. Their voices matter, and right now, those voices are telling new educators: stay away.

Why are so many good teachers leaving? Because they feel invisible. They lack autonomy, professional growth opportunities, and above all—support. Many entered the field to shape Israel’s future, to educate a generation committed to knowledge, responsibility, and shared citizenship. But today, teachers know that even touching sensitive or controversial issues—without taking a stand—can bring backlash from principals, parents, or the state. So they stick to the syllabus and survive each day, burdened by crises rather than inspired by purpose.

But beyond the crisis in classrooms, a deeper structural threat looms: the erosion of the state education system itself. For decades, Israeli law linked the level of public funding to the level of state oversight—ensuring that public schools remained the cornerstone of civic and democratic education. But new regulations championed by the current government turn this principle on its head.

These changes significantly increase public funding for ultra-Orthodox schools that are not under state supervision and do not teach core curriculum subjects. In some calculations, a child in one of these networks will now receive 2,500 shekels more per year than a child in the Hebrew-speaking state school system—despite the former’s exemption from national service and lack of civic curriculum.

And it doesn’t stop there. A recent court ruling opened the door for private schools to receive equivalent state funding, further weakening the public system. The logic is inverted: the more private and sectorial your school, the more funding you receive. Meanwhile, public schools—especially those whose graduates serve in the army, contribute to society, and come from the geographic and social periphery—are left behind.

This is not about educational choice. It’s about dismantling the very idea of a shared Israeli education—a system that unites rather than fragments. The same privatization processes that hollowed out Israel’s public healthcare system are now at work in education. High-quality teachers and students from wealthier families will migrate to private frameworks, while the public system becomes under-resourced and demoralized.

Amal Educational Network is committed to resisting this trend. We are working to strengthen the public education system—not just through science and technology, but by restoring values, identity, and democracy to the classroom. We believe in the power of teachers, and in the role of schools to build a better society. But we cannot do it alone. The future of Israel depends on the choices we make today. We invite our partners to stand with us—for education, for equity, and for democracy.