Who needs more resources to succeed - students in rich or poor cities?

Children who attend schools in Ra'anana are more likely to do well academically than children in the country's bigger cities. As a result, this locale took first place in the municipal education index compiled recently by TheMarker and the Ha'ir weekly.

High-school students in Ra'anana have the highest eligibility rates for matriculation certificates and the lowest dropout rate. Ramat Gan, Kfar Sava and Herzliya took second, third and fourth places, respectively, in terms of the quality of education, while also factoring in the number of students in classrooms and each municipality's investment in education.

Even though the 15 locales surveyed for the index are ostensibly the largest and most well-established in Israel, the gaps between high-school students' achievements are quite conspicuous, particularly when comparing cities in the Dan and Sharon regions with outlying cities, whose municipalities are limited in their investment in education. Jerusalem ranked lowest on the education index, with the highest dropout rate and the lowest matriculation-certificate eligibility rate - specifically, among the city's Arab and ultra-Orthodox Jewish residents. The bottom third of the education index includes Holon, Netanya, Be'er Sheva and Ashdod.

Who needs more resources in order to succeed - a student in Herzliya or his contemporary in Jerusalem? TheMarker's survey found that the Education Ministry actually allocates lower sums to students in the socioeconomically weaker cities. According to the ministry's data, this disparity amounts to hundreds or thousands of shekels in investments per student in the various cities. In 2006, for example, the ministry transferred about NIS 3,600 more per student per year to Herzliya than to Hadera - NIS 4,310 per student versus NIS 732 - even though the latter's socioeconomic level is rated 5 (on the Central Bureau of Statistics' scale of 1-10), while Herzliya is rated 8. The Education Ministry offered a simple explanation for this difference: The teachers in cities like Herzliya are more professional and more highly educated, and therefore cost more.

Secondary Teachers' Association chairman Ran Erez says that a high-school teacher who has a bachelor's degree and 20 years of experience earns NIS 7,400 a month (gross), while a similar teacher with a master's degree earns 15% more, and a teacher with a doctorate earns 30% more. Teachers fresh out of university earn NIS 3,800 (gross).

The disparity in the total investment in education per student is much greater, as the economically stronger municipalities can supplement the ministry's budget from their own. About 75% of the education budget in most local authorities comes from the Education Ministry. The municipalities are supposed to provide the remaining 25%, but most invest much more. In Herzliya, a total of NIS 9,327 was invested per student (in 2006), including the parents' payments.

In Rishon Letzion the Education Ministry provided NIS 4,269 per student, but the city added only an additional NIS 1,397. In Hadera, the picture is much bleaker, as the ministry provided just NIS 732, and the city added NIS 2,477. Even though Hadera's municipality provided substantially more than the Education Ministry, percentage-wise, the total budget for each child was still only NIS 3,209.

It is easy to see the connection between the education budget per student and academic achievement. In Ra'anana an average of 72.7% of high-school graduates were eligible for matriculation certificates in 2004-2006 - 33% above the national average and 12% above the average in the 15 cities surveyed. Kfar Sava and Herzliya, which budgeted NIS 6,081 and NIS 9,327 per student per year, respectively, were also ranked above the average in eligibility for matriculation certificates. The below-average cities - Be'er Sheva (53.3%) Hadera (50.8%) and Jerusalem (35.6%) - had an average annual investment per student of just NIS 3,564.

The average dropout rate for all the cities surveyed was 2.7%. Jerusalem has the highest, with 6.7% of all high-school students quitting; Tel Aviv and Holon are next in line, at 3.5% and 3.2%, respectively. In Ra'anana, on the other hand, this figure is just 1.1%.

"There is no great wisdom in the success of the wealthier municipalities," says Prof. Yogev Avraham, of the school of education at Tel Aviv University. "They can simply invest more. The parents in the richer cities can also invest more, via their municipal taxes or by investing in private lessons. One basic factor is behind all those figures: the socioeconomic status of the population."

"When you look at the socioeconomic rankings," said Education Minister Yuli Tamir in an interview to TheMarker, "you can see that we invest less in students from lower socioeconomic strata than in students in the higher strata. This is a function of the quality of the teachers: The teachers in the center [of the country] are more skilled, the subjects offered are more prestigious, and require more funding."

Students in the richer municipalities also benefit from a better economic background and from more highly skilled and higher quality teachers.

"Since we raised the teachers' salaries with the implementation of the New Horizon program (the elementary school reform, which includes higher teachers' wages and more teaching hours - L.D.), the gap has widened," continued Tamir. "Since most of the ministry's budget is earmarked for teachers' wages, that is where the disparity is most evident. This is why we wanted to institute differential budgeting."

The differential budgeting suggested by the treasury was supposed to go into effect this school year. The Education Ministry recommended cutting about NIS 85 million from the budget transferred via the local authorities, based on their socioeconomic standing, thus effectively passing on funds from the stronger authorities, which can afford to invest in education, to the weaker ones. The local authorities, however, objected, claiming that the cut they had to cope with was actually much greater - amounting to NIS 270 million - and that imposing such a burden on them would result in the dismissal of teachers and increased municipal taxes.

The Center for Local Government, which represents the local authorities, threatened to embark on a strike in the schools. At a recent meeting between Tamir, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Finance Minister Roni Bar-On and local authority heads, Olmert ordered the Education Ministry to set up a committee of academicians and economists to examine differential budgeting in the system, and to submit its conclusions by the end of November,.

"There used to be an incentive program to attract teachers to national-priority development areas, but unfortunately the High Court of Justice rejected the legality of the program," says Tamir. "The treasury's new program for the periphery favors educating teachers from the weaker areas, and I strongly support this. This way we can send skilled teachers back to the weaker regions."

The economically strong municipalities claim the Education Ministry has already trimmed their budgets, and that they cannot cope with more cuts.

"This is true, but what can we do when the education system must transfer funds to distressed areas?" Tamir notes. "The differential process is necessary in order to implement social justice. The municipalities will be partners [in this] and the data will be transparent."

"We have moved in and invested in every place where the state has stopped its funding," says Dafna Lev, who heads the Tel Aviv municipality's Education, Culture and Sports Administration, "but we have reached the end of our capability. We are worried and are seeking financing sources, and hope that the state will take the resources from us - they are being channeled to the weaker population sectors.