Local-Authority Funding of Primary School Instruction hours and Its Effect on Affirmative Action in the State (Jewish, Non-Religious) Education System

This paper examines the extent of local authorities’ involvement in the funding of state (Jewish, non-religious) primary education, and the affirmative-action policies adopted within the local authorities. The local authorities’ share of funding instruction hours in state primary schools between 2001 and 2009 was about two weekly hours per class, less than 4 percent of total hours and close to one-third of hours financed by sources other than the Ministry of Education. Funding by local authorities has reduced affirmative action for students from weak socioeconomic backgrounds over those from stronger backgrounds from 32 percent (in the case of hours funded by the Ministry of Education only) to 27 percent—a direct outcome of two conflicting phenomena: Local authorities with strong socioeconomic characteristics made much more resources available to primary schools than did weak local authorities, while in contrast, these authorities invoked a significant affirmative-action policy in favor of schools with students from weaker socioeconomic backgrounds—an additional 2–3 weekly hours per class. A positive correlation is found between local authorities’ fiscal condition and their investment in state primary education: the elasticity of teachers’ work hours financed by the local authority to the authority’s average total revenue per resident was 1.2, and the elasticity to the authority’s debt per resident (in absolute terms) was -0.4. Higher socioeconomic ranking and better fiscal condition of the local authority are correlated with greater affirmative action within the local authority.