Israeli Education Committee Maintains Parent Payment Rates for 2026/27 School Year
The Israeli Education Committee has approved the official parent payment schedule for the 2026/27 school year, keeping fees unchanged from the previous year. Official payments will range from 322 shekels in compulsory kindergartens to 1,761 shekels in 12th grade. The committee also confirmed a mandatory personal accident insurance fee of 69 shekels per student.
Additional compulsory fees, categorized as local authority payments but effectively mandatory, cover cultural programs, trips, extracurricular activities, parent leadership, and graduation events. These fees vary from 253 shekels in kindergartens to 1,372 shekels in 12th grade. The committee approved a book loan fee of 280-320 shekels for the 2027/28 school year.
According to the Knesset Research and Information Center, total household spending on parent payments in 2025 is estimated at 5.2 billion shekels, with only 1.9 billion shekels accounted for by official and local authority fees approved by the committee. The remaining 3.3 billion shekels represent additional payments that contribute significantly to social disparities. Education Ministry representatives noted no increase in many additional voluntary fees, such as extra curriculum programs and meals.
Education Ministry Director General Meir Shimoni emphasized that reducing all parent payments would require formal legislation. The ministry has allocated an extra 50 million shekels to subsidize payments for families unable to pay, with a total of 180 million shekels dedicated to aid for low-income students, including 100 million shekels in scholarships for trips.
Despite approval of the payment schedule, criticism arose during the committee discussion. Noam Wilder from the Council for the Child called for the complete abolition of parent payments and full state funding of all activities, stating, "Education should be free, not half-free." Committee legal advisor Tami Sela agreed on the need to reduce payments to lessen inequality but noted that eliminating fees for all, including affluent families, may not be the most efficient approach. MK Moshe Tur-Paz from Yesh Atid highlighted the complexity of the issue, acknowledging the necessity of national budget priorities and suggesting that parent payments should be integrated into the education budget while expecting wealthier families to contribute more.
