Yesterday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Education Yoav Kisch, and Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, presented the government’s plan for subsidizing pre-school education. Netanyahu’s main election pledge was free education for ages 0-3.
"I heard a genuine cry from parents saying that they have to spend NIS 20,000-30,000 a year for each child in daycare. Sometimes the burden is so great that some parents told me that one of them has to stay at home. We will enable every family to send its child to supervised daycare. Today, the first stage of the plan is getting underway. From January 1, 2024, the net income families in Israel with two parents will grow by NIS 940 a month."
Netanyahu said that the benefits would be given for every child aged 0-3. "This means that if you have a child, in the next three years you will receive about NIS 30,000 for that child. Children in supervised daycare centers with tax benefits will immediately receive a full subsidy. At present there is a partial subsidy at the daycare centers. We are exempting this payment through tax benefits that we are giving. Today, there are about 120,000 such children in the daycare centers, and by the end of the year we shall reach 160,000 children, and that will cover 30% of children aged 0-3.
"At he same time, we shall invest over NIS 2 billion at the initial stage in building more supervised daycare centers. Our target under the five-year plan is to raise dramatically the number of supervised daycare centers so that there will be a place for every couple who wishes to do so to send they children to a supervised daycare. We shall reach a situation in which from zero to six, education is essentially free, after enacting free education from three to six in previous governments," Netanyahu added.
Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich said, "We are making a decision that gives a direct response to the cost of living for parents through tax credit points and negative income tax, and this is in addition to increasing the subsidy for supervised daycare centers and increasing their number. At the same time, we shall invest resources in improving the quality of education at the daycare centers."
Smotrich went on to put the measures on daycare into their political context. "Because the media are in the midst of an unbridled and mendacious campaign against the government over the judicial reform, it tries to hide our activity and to claim that nothing has been done, but the public is wiser and it sees in its paycheck the net gain thanks to the credit points, and it sees the price at the fuel station despite the rise all over the world," he said.
Minister of Education Yoav Kisch added, "We shall boost the pedagogical level of the daycare centers. Ten hours monthly will be funded for training caregivers at the centers. That is part of the budget. We are expanding training and instruction for caregivers, and that will not just be at the supervised centers. Every caregiver, even at the private daycare centers, who attends a course, will receive a NIS 2,500 grant. This is in addition to a pay rise for caregivers."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 1, 2023.
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