Budgets for a state-religious high school student in 2021 was 26% more than in secular high schools

The average budget for a state-religious high school student in 2021 was NIS 41,400 - 26% more than the budget for a state high school student, which was over NIS 32,800. This was the gap in 2020 as well - thereby maintaining the large gap between the two sectors this year as well. This is according to the "Budgetary Transparency" presentation for 2021 published today (Sunday) by the Ministry of Education.
These disparities are the result of the period in which ministers from the religious parties ruled the ministry, between 2015 and 2020 - first Naftali Bennett and then Rafi Peretz - who poured large budgets into the religious high schools. In 2015, the gap between the state-religious and the state was still 20%. Among the reasons for the disparity in favor of the MMD: reinforcement hours for Jewish studies, rabbi hours and prayer.
 The even larger gap between religious state education and Arab education has been reduced from 57% in 2020 and 61% in 2019 to 44% in 2021. This reduction is probably the result of the beginning of differential budgeting in the Arab high schools. The budget for an Arab high school student in 2021 was only NIS 28,800.
The figures are more equal in the elementary schools and middle schools, where a program of differential budgeting was gradually introduced starting in the middle of the previous decade. And yet, when comparing according to the cultivation quintiles, the gaps are large. The average budget for a student from the weakest quintile in a Jewish middle school is NIS 28,100, which is 20.5% more than the average budget for a student in an Arab middle school from the same quintile - NIS 23,300.
The document shows a very problematic image of deprivation of the weak strata, according to which the budget per student in most of the high school care quintiles is higher than in the weak quintile. For example, the budget per student in the weak-medium quintile is NIS 35,100, compared to only NIS 32,300 in the weak quintile. Students in the medium and medium-strong quintiles also receive on average NIS 500 more than high school students in the weak quintile. According to the senior education researcher Nahum Blass from the Taub Center, in order to have substantial equality, a 50% advantage is needed for the weak.
The data shows that the sector with the highest eligibility rate for a matriculation certificate is the Druze sector with 91.3%, far ahead of the Jews with 77.8% and the Arabs without East Jerusalem (74.5%). The Bedouins are far behind (60.4%). It should be noted that the Ministry of Education calculates from among those who studied in 12th grade, which means that the calculation does not include the many young Arabs who dropped out and many ultra-Orthodox youth who study in yeshiva without matriculation studies. This means that the results in the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors are actually much worse.
An increase of 2.6% was recorded in eligibility for a matriculation certificate from 73.4% in 2019/20 to 76% in 2020/21, this after an increase from 69.7% in 2018/19. Because 2015 and 2016 were two years of Corona in which there were major concessions in matriculation. In other words, it is doubtful whether the increase indicates a real improvement in the students' results and their abilities. There is a real fear that the so-called success will cause higher education institutions to question the grades of these two cohorts.
An apparently even more impressive success was recorded in the eligibility for an outstanding matriculation - an increase of 2.5% from 10.8% in the 2015 to 13.3% in the 2016. The Ministry of Education prides itself on reducing the gap in eligibility for matriculation between the first and last quintiles from 21% to 14%.