As we start discussing our choices at the ballot box, it is worth remembering another choice that is being denied us. A friend recently related in frustration that his daughter was placed in the first grade of a school they disliked: “Our older son studied at the school and we were not happy. We registered our younger one at a different school with her friends. But our registration request was denied”. He wondered in frustration what he could do. For most parents in Israel, the decision where your children will attend school is not up to you. The authorities apparently know better than you what’s good for your children.
Under the radar, an important, not to say critical, decision is being taken away from you, parents, and handed over to local authorities: the decision where to send your children to school. “Tell me where you live, and I’ll tell you which school your kids will be placed in”. Unbelievably, in Israel 2026, local authorities make the decision of which elementary school children will study in for 66% of Israeli parents. Only one third of Israel’s local authorities afford parents a choice between a number of schools, in stark contrast to the rest of the Western world, where many OECD countries have registration systems that allow parents to register their children at the school of their choice. Lately, North Carolina joined the school choice program and became the thirty first US state to allow parents to choose their children’s school.
In Israel as well, already back in 2005 a government commission recommended the education system allow parental choice, leading to the establishment of a department within the Ministry of Education tasked with encouraging authorities to allow parents a choice between schools, encouraging schools to develop their own unique characteristics, and granting parents and schoolchildren the freedom to choose according to their preferences. Is your child better suited to a large or a small school? An arts or a science school? What type of teacher do you trust? Is it important to you that a school be close to home or you’re prepared to travel?
A third of local authorities in Israel joined the “controlled choice” program (Merchavei Chinuch), allowing parents a choice at the point of registration. These authorities are privileged to advance the education system within their jurisdiction. Apparently, the Talmudic dictum that “Jealousy among writers increases wisdom” proves true in this case as well. Studies conducted on this subject have found that parental choice forces schools to be better, promotes competition between schools, improves rates of satisfaction among parents, teachers and students, reduces violence, positively impacts achievement and enables educational variety.
The lack of choice which typifies the Israeli education system causes it to decline in many ways, the most painful of which is the impact on weaker populations. Many studies in Israel and worldwide demonstrate that when authorities force students from weaker neighborhoods to stay in their local schools, their (non) achievement is extremely predictable. Unfortunately, in Israel the correlation between socioeconomic level and scholastic achievement is proven again and again. In contrast, the possibility of parental choice creates movement and reduces social and pedagogical disparities.
School choice is as necessary to the education system as oxygen is for breathing. Although the freedom for parents to choose a school for their children is extremely basic, it is stolen away from so many parents and students. Throughout history, the demand for liberty and choice rose from the people – it is time for parents in Israel to demand the freedom to choose what is best for their children. When a local authority allows you as parents to register your child only at the school it chose in your stead please remember: this isn’t the only way. We can do things differently.
(First published in Hebrew in Makor Rishon)
