Starting Next Year: Price Of Afternoon Programs To Drop By Hundreds Of NIS

The finance ministry in conjunction with the ‘Center for local authority’ formed a plan to lower prices for afternoon programs in kindergartens and elementary schools up until the second grade- according to a report published on Israeli channel 2 new station.

The program will initiate a subsidization that will lower the monthly cost for the afternoon programs by 150 NIS in the well-established towns, and will increase the subsidization accordingly in towns that are not as established.

The program which is expected to be launched by the next school year will grant some towns a discount of up to 400 NIS a month per child.

Afternoon programs in Israel are currently operated by the local municipalities where the schools and kindergartens are located, conditions and prices vary from place to place.

The Finance Ministry is also working on a program that will place a cap on the monthly price, and will permit schools to charge parents no more than 900 NIS a month per child.

Back in 2012, the government approved a program that would completely subsidize afternoon programs in suburban towns, and would also significantly reduce prices in the big cities. The plan was suggested by the ‘Trochtenburg committee’, as a means to ease high costs that burden citizens.

However, then finance minister Yair Lapid vetoed the program preventing it from being implemented. In its place a rather a small subsidization was introduced.
Finance Minister Moshe Kachlon chose to implement greater and more significant cuts to the afternoon programs but not to have it completely subsidized.

Kachlon recently postponed the full implementation of the ‘Long day education ‘law which wasvoted on over 20 years ago. The law mandates free educational afternoon programs including a hot meal fully subsidized by the department of education for all citizens. The law never went into effect due to continuous postponements and delays by the department of finance throughout the years.

The ‘Center for local authority’ released a statement saying, “The center has been working for many months to advance the subsidization and price limit of the afternoon programs…Deliberations are still ongoing and no agreement has been reached yet. We hope that the Finance ministry will agree to the plan which we have proposed and will fund our initiative in order to give every home in Israel equal opportunity to afternoon education”.

Translated by Eli B.

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