The state paid for core studies that were not taught
For a decade, the Ministry of Education imposed fines on Haredi schools for failing to meet core curriculum requirements, but the state has admitted in the Supreme Court that these fines were never actually implemented.
Over the last decade (2014–2022), the Ministry of Education imposed hundreds of fines on Haredi educational institutions that did not meet the core curriculum requirements. However, in a response submitted by the state to the Supreme Court last month, it admits that in practice, the fines were not implemented.
These fines are called "offsets," and they were very symbolic compared to the profit the institutions gained from joining networks that receive a budget equal to state education. In 2024, Calcalist revealed that no one knows if the offsets were carried out at all. On July 23, the state submitted a response to petitions against the illegal transfer of funds amounting to 1 billion shekels last December. In its response, the state admitted: "In practice, no offset was carried out." The reason for this is the budgeting method that was used in the Haredi networks – the Independent Education of Agudat Yisrael and Bnei Yosef of Shas – which was canceled a year ago. In this method, these networks were the only ones budgeted according to actual expenditure and not according to what they were entitled to by law.
A Calcalist investigation reveals that the scope of the offsets that the state is waiving reaches 103 million shekels in 346 different cases. The fictitious offsets are just one example of the schemes exposed in recent years following petitions by the Hiddush association and social activist Israel Kroizer regarding administrative irregularities in the networks. In fact, the Haredi networks operated in a regulatory universe of their own where laws are invented to suit them.
The latest petition by Hiddush deals with the obligation of all institutions in both networks to teach 100% of the core curriculum in exchange for funding equal to state education. In recent decades, more than 100 Talmud Torahs for boys were brought into the networks to receive the additional funding, and many of the institutions had no intention of meeting the core requirements.
The state's response details the list of exemptions the institutions received: in 7th-8th grades, where boys are busy preparing for yeshiva, there are 5 fewer weekly hours than required in mathematics, English, and science; if an institution does not want to teach English, it can teach another language, for example, Hebrew; if an institution teaches science or English in only one cycle, it is counted as if the whole school is studying the subject; if an institution teaches after July 1st (all Haredi Talmud Torahs teach until Tisha B'Av), it receives a 50% exemption from the core curriculum. Some of these exemptions were canceled following the petitions, but some still exist by order of the Ministry of Education Director General Meir Shimoni.
Attached to the state's response to the petition were calculations by the Treasury, according to which 176 institutions (34%) do not meet the requirements of the Haredi core curriculum. 134 institutions (43 in Independent Education and 91 in Bnei Yosef) out of 524 network institutions do not even meet 75% of the core curriculum. In total, 1,877 hours of core studies are missing in the Bnei Yosef network and 674 hours in Independent Education. That is, the state budgets 2,551 core hours that are not actually provided.
The Treasury's analysis also shows that in 68% of Haredi institutions, some of the study hours are taught by teachers who have no training to teach the subject. Many Haredi teachers are yeshiva graduates without core studies and a matriculation certificate. In 44 institutions, there is not even one teacher qualified to teach mathematics, English, or science.
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara determined in the response to the petition that the funding of the networks should be conditioned as early as the coming school year on full compliance with the core requirements, but experience shows that the Ministry of Education will not be quick to cooperate.
Former Minister of Education Shai Piron, who currently serves as president of the Pnima organization, which leads educational frameworks, believes that the solution to the core studies problem is strengthening the State-Haredi education (MAMACH). According to him, for this, legislation must be passed that will require opening MAMACH institutions wherever there is sufficient demand from parents, as is done today with State-Religious education (MAMAD). The problem is that in many localities, mayors thwart the opening of MAMACH institutions due to pressure from Haredi coalition partners who do not want competition for their education networks. No response was received from the Ministry of Education.
