Israel Boosts Per-Student Funding in West Bank Settlements at Expense of Northern and Southern Peripheries

The Israeli Ministry of Education has significantly increased per-student funding for high schools in the West Bank, a move that has led to a decrease in per-student investment in the country's northern and southern peripheries. This shift, detailed by the Manof Center for strengthening public education, shows an average increase of over 1,200 shekels per student in West Bank settlements, while per-student funding in the north dropped by 570 shekels and in the south by 232 shekels.

The change stems from a directive issued by the Ministry of Education about 18 months ago that expanded the criteria for the "security track," which provides supplementary budgets to schools facing geographical or security challenges. This expansion added 33 new locations, many of them in the West Bank, to the track. Consequently, the proportion of schools receiving this supplementary budget through the security track rose from 3% to 26% of all recipients.

Because the total supplementary budget remained unchanged, the funds were redistributed among a larger number of institutions. Schools newly included in the security track received more funding, while those outside it received less. The Manof Center noted that the directive did not specify the security or pedagogical reasons for these changes, nor did it reflect significant alterations in the security situations of most affected institutions.

The redistribution also impacted different educational streams. For the 2025/26 school year, the average supplementary per-student funding increased in the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) and state-religious sectors, while it decreased in the general state and Arab state sectors. Specifically, state-religious students received an average of 1,888 shekels, more than triple the amount for general state students. The supplementary funding for Arab state students was 1,298 shekels, and for Haredi students, it was 440 shekels.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Education exempted settlements included in the security track from a local population cap that applies to other settlements. This exemption allowed educational institutions in the Haredi cities of Modi'in Illit and Beitar Illit to become eligible for the supplementary funding. The Ministry of Education stated that the supplementary funding is intended to help small schools in peripheral or security-threatened areas offer a diverse range of subjects and programs comparable to schools elsewhere in the country.